Death of the Fourth Hokage
by flame's shadow
Summary: Sequel to Death of the Third Hokage: The budding relationship of Naruto and Temari, the destruction of the long standing peace, and the first passionate moments of youth.
1. Chapter 1

Back after a long hiatus! Alright, here's the first chapter in the new arc, hope it goes over well!

As always, I own nothing…

xXxXxXx

Naruto could barely keep his head up as he looked over the classroom. Last night he had a terrible dream about his mother again, and it had kept him up the whole night at Shikamaru's place. The blonde had chosen to sit in the back, up by the highest window, letting him look down over all the others. He noticed Sakura sitting in the middle area of the room, all the way up against the far wall. Sasuke was at the very front of the room, as always, and seemed to be focusing on his fingernails and trying to ignore the blushing and interested fan girls surrounding him. It honestly made Naruto sick, which was one reason why he always came to class late. It allowed him to avoid his fan-club and keep to himself. Added to that was the fact that Naruto chose a horrendous orange colored jumpsuit to keep the number of his fans to a minimum, unlike the fashionably dressed Uchiha. 'Still, you'd think that he'd wear something besides that outfit that Sakura picked for him way back when…but at least it goes with his sword.' Naruto adjusted his headband and stifled a yawn, fighting to keep his eyes open as Iruka walked in with the team placements.

"Alright, listen up for your team placements. All of you passed the exam, so you all will know be placed on teams and given missions to follow, is that understood?" Iruka looked over the class as he got a less than empathetic response to his call and sighed. It was always this way with his class, ever since the group started modeling themselves after the two biggest slackers, Naruto and Shikamaru. Both of them performed the bare minimum of class participation, never really acting on something unless Iruka forced them to care.

As Iruka called out the names, Naruto could barely force himself to care. Another year had passed, and he had graduated the academy at the regular age of twelve, much to his father's disappointment. 'Still, not like I care what the old man thinks…just because he graduated at age ten doesn't mean I have to…though honestly, I could have completed all of this stuff back before Mom died…' Naruto sank further into his funk, barely even catching the names being called out.

"Team Seven will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Naruto Namikaze" That got Naruto to perk up a bit. 'So, the whole gang is together huh? Guess dad was forced to do that since the three of us have been inseparable the last few years…' Naruto smiled a bit at that, remembering how Sakura had comforted the two of them after the return of the Konoha mission those many years ago. She had helped Naruto through the pain of losing his mother, and Sasuke through the pain of losing his older brother and most of his clan.

'She really is the only thing that held us all together…guess even dad can see that we needed her to keep going. Not like he cares now that he and Anko are settling down' Bile rose in Naruto's throat as he considered that, forcing himself look out the window in disdain. 'Mom hasn't even been gone that long and the guy is already settling down with a younger woman to boot! And then he wonders why I'm always staying over at Sasuke's or Sakura's, or even Shikamaru's place! The nerve of the man!' Naruto was well into one of his more infamous anger sessions now, his hands going white from their clenched fist grip.

Naruto came back to reality as he noticed a bunch of the other kids leaving. Looking around, he noticed that only Sasuke and Sakura were left in the room, and the boy sighed loudly breaking the silence. "Looks like our teacher abandoned us, huh?" Sasuke shot a look back at Naruto with a similarly chagrined expression, and then shrugged.

"What else is new? Besides, if we have some spare time, I say we leave a little surprise for the stupid jonin!" Sasuke rolled his eyes, but Sakura stifled a small laugh in response. The girl moved from her seat at the top of the class down to the front row where Sasuke was sitting. She had on a simple pink battle dress with no sleeves, and knee length black short underneath. Her hair was cropped around her neck length and a new Konoha headband was strapped across the front of her forehead.

"Still, I'm glad I got paired with you two at least. I don't know what I would have done had I been stuck with Ino as she clamored on about boys and shopping." Sasuke smirked and laughed lightly to himself at this, catching Sakura's attention. "You know, you really could be nicer to her Sasuke, I mean, she does lead your fan-club and all." The girl ribbed him lightly in the side with her elbow, causing the boy to brush her off.

"Just because she leads my fan-club doesn't mean I have to be a fan of her. Besides, half the time I can barely tell if she wants to be with me or with Naruto." At the mention of his name, the blonde ninja shushed the other two as he carefully placed an eraser between the cracks of the sliding door. "She's way too obnoxious and loud, like most of the blonde's I know." Naruto shot Sasuke a dirty look as he walked over and sat next to the others.

Sakura laughed lightly and wrapped her arms around both of the boys' shoulders. "Won't she be jealous then with me having both of you all to myself?" The two struggled to get out from under her grasp before Naruto got a mischievous grin in his eyes. The blonde reached over and started tickling the pinkette, causing her to laugh and pull away. Normally, this would have been a perfect escape, but Sasuke had gone for the same thing as Naruto, and ended up tickling her chest instead. The girl blushed terribly, and then darkened into a mood of rage, turning on both of the perpetrators. "Oh Sasuke-kun…I think we need to have a talk about personal boundries…" Her voice was venom, and luckily it gave Naruto the chance to create a shadow clone for Sasuke to swap with. Sakura paused for a moment at this, and both boys took it as their chance to escape, quickly fleeing in opposite directions.

"This is all your fault Sasuke! Jeez, why do I stick my neck out for you sometimes, it doesn't even make any sense!" Naruto jumped over tables and chairs as the angered girl chased the two of them at top speed.

"Don't waste time talking Naruto, just run! If she catches either of us, we're in big trouble." Sasuke's face was an image of abject terror as he raced through the classroom, avoiding the wrath of his friend. Both of them knew, from personal experience, that an angered Sakura was the last thing anyone wanted chasing after them.

During their running around, they missed the quiet opening of the door and the drop of the eraser onto a clearly unaware jonin. Turning as one, they looked fairly farcical as Naruto held a struggling Sakura back from choking Sasuke. Still, all of this stopped as Sakura and Naruto turned as one and yelled at the silver haired ninja in standard garb. "HAH, YOU FELL FOR IT!" Sasuke had the decency to right his clothes before turning and smirking haughtily at the ninja.

The man paused for a second, rubbing his fingers along his chin. Naruto had never even seen this ninja before, but for some reason he felt like he knew him. It stood to reason that he would remember the guy though, that strange headband placed across one of his eyes. "Let me see, I'd have to say that my first impression of you guys is…" all of the gennin leaned forward to hear what he had to say "…I hate you." All three of the individuals glared daggers his way respectively, and the man sniggered inwardly a little. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out an orange little book and turned to leave the classroom. "Follow me, we're going to head to the roof and do some basic introductions." Naruto still felt like he recognized the guy from somewhere, and the orange book only furthered his suspicion.

Once they were all settled on the rooftop, the man sighed and put his book down, giggling a little as he did. "Alright then, why don't we start by introducing ourselves…you know, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, stuff like that…" all three of the gennin eyed the man wearily once more, but Sasuke shrugged and went first.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I like fried rice and salted meat, and I dislike candy or chocolate. My dream for the future is to lead the Uchiha clan once more to greatness, and to bring Madara Uchiha to justice for what he has done to this village," This caused the whole group to pause for a second and give Sasuke a strange glance. "My hobbies are Kendo and shuriken manipulation. I'm also a fire type, and have mastered several fire ninjutsu." The boy looked up for a moment as if remembering something. "I also have these to give to my teammates before we continue." The boy pulled out chakra slips, surprising everyone else. Naruto and Sakura remembered them from the far off birthday party, causing both of them to smile lightly.

The jonin for his part raised a single eyebrow, and motioned for them to continue. Sakura channeled a bit of chakra into the paper, and it soaked and dripped on her, causing her to drop it rather quickly in a gasp of surprise. Naruto took his and it split straight up the center. Sasuke gripped his expecting it to turn to ash, but was surprised when it indented sharply first before burning up in his grip.

"Well, I have to say, I'm starting to like this group a little bit…having access to chakra paper and learning your elements early on could make training you lot a bit more bearable. Tell me, how did you all do in your classes?" Sakura turned and looked at the man sharply, shaking her head.

"No way, not until you introduce yourself at least. Especially when you don't have the decency to know not to read book's like that in front of women." Her comment drew the attention of Naruto, who looked suddenly as if he had been hit with a two by four.

"I know who you are now! You're that perverted ninja Kakashi who always comes by whenever Uncle Jiraiya visits!" Turning a serious look towards Sakura, Naruto whispered conspiratorially with her. "This guy's the second biggest pervert I know, so whatever you do, don't let your guard down around him, alright?" Sakura nodded, and Sasuke fixed Kakashi with an even harsher glare than before. Putting his material safely back in his vest pocket, Kakashi sighed and turned to look all of them in the eyes.

"As Naruto here mentioned, my name is Kakashi Hatake, as for my likes and dislikes, that's nothing I'm sharing with any of you just yet…My dreams for the future…" the man paused as if deep in thought "…are also none of your concern, and I have many hobbies and pastimes". All three of the individual students in front of him face faulted at this, thinking along the same lines. 'He didn't tell us anything!'

Naruto sighed and ran his hands through his hair. The wind on the rooftop played with it lightly and the village behind him looked to be in full swing of life. "My name is Naruto Namikaze, though I prefer to go by Uzumaki if given the chance. My likes are ramen and candy, and my dislikes are perverts and people who never have time for those they care about. My hobbies are cooking and gardening, as they give me a chance to earn my keep when I stay at a friend's house. My specialties are shadow clone techniques, and high level explosive seals. I also like practicing difficult taijutsu styles that involve wielding talon kunai." Naruto paused to fix the jonin with a harsh stare. "My goals for the future are to punish all perverts excessively, and to become the greatest Hokage ever." Kakashi was a little struck by the diminutive shinobi's powerful determination, and patted his chest pocket absently to reassure himself of his book's safety.

"Guess that means I'm next. My name is Sakura Haruno, and my likes are dumplings and umeboshi. I dislike all food spicy and all men perverted. My goal for the future is to surpass the legendary Tsunade Senju in terms of medical ability, and to keep myself on par with Naruto and Sasuke. My hobbies are trivia games and needle-work. My current specialties are basic genjutsu and medical ninjutsu, as well as my own thread based trap jutsu." Her gaze took on a softer tone, with a bit of haughtiness behind her emerald green eyes. "And just so you know, I graduated top of the class, ahead of Sasuke. Naruto was ranked around the bottom since he never really tried, the idiot." Naruto smirked slightly and ducked his head blushing a bit.

"Sounds like I have a rather strong team of gennin then…I hope you make it through tomorrow's test." All of the other's snapped up at this, worry registering in their eyes.

"Oh, so Iruka didn't tell you huh? All of the jonin give one final test to the graduating rookies. Only a third or so of the teams usually make it through, and it really depends on the person giving the test." Kakashi was thankful for his mask as it allowed him to keep a relatively straight face while smiling so much sometimes.

"How hard is your test?" Sasuke was the one asking, and had a hard look set in his onyx eyes.

"Well for the last nine teams I've tested…none have passed." Fear definitely played through all of them, save Sasuke, whose look only became more determined. "If you still want to risk it, you could show up early tomorrow, around eight, at training ground forty four…" Kakashi couldn't help but starting to laugh at the looks on all of their faces. "I always love how much rookies flip out when they hear about the test. Well, the papers are there for it, so I'll see you tomorrow I guess." The jonin handed out the slips of paper and turned to leave.

"Oh and one last thing; if you don't want to throw up, you should skip breakfast." With that, the mysterious man disappeared into a puff of smoke, his orange book out and giggling as he left.

Naruto was the first to break the silence as the three friends held onto the slips of paper. "We would get the most bat-shit-insane instructor, wouldn't we?" His accompanied sigh got a smirk out of Sakura and a grin from Sasuke. The Uchiha rose to his feet and stuffed the permission slip in his pocket.

"Come on, we have some work to do looking up on this guy. Our headbands will get us into the Shinobi library where they keep the bingo book on our village's ninja" Sakura blinked in comprehension, stuffing her piece of paper away as well.

"Do you think they'll have any information on the upcoming test there?" The girl was focused on the taller boy, who merely shrugged in response.

"It'll still be worth it to check it out. Besides, we can get some basic jutsu scrolls for our elements there." Naruto rose to join the other two, his own permission paper crumpled up and stuffed in a pocket.

"The runt's got a point Sakura" Sasuke stepped quickly to the side and grabbed Naruto in a friendly headlock. Naruto for his part strained to get out of the hold, but Sasuke was a good four or five inches taller, and a bit more muscular. "We could probably even get started on some basics of those elements tonight…" Naruto finally found a slip in the older boy's defense and twisted out of Sasuke's grasp.

"No way! You two knuckleheads can try to learn a new technique in a day if you want, but I'm resting up and eating a big breakfast before tomorrow." Both boys turned and gave the girl a quizzical look. Before they could ask she hushed them. "Let's get to the library and I'll explain once we get there."

Hidden in the nearby trees, Kakashi smirked as his gennin group departed. 'Those are the most coordinated and organized gennin I've seen in a while…I may actually be bested tomorrow if I'm not careful.' A slight smile was on the copycat's lips as he slinked away to the Hokage's office.

xXxXxXx

A purple haired woman sashayed into the office of the Hokage, drawing the eyesight of the male chunin guards on duty outside the office. "He's not too busy to see me now, is he?" Both of the men on guard duty shook their heads in the negative, inviting her in, and trying very hard to keep their eyes on the modest portions of the woman. This was rather difficult as her current dress was nothing more than an open trench coat that covered mesh shirts and tight black shorts. That they hugged a very curvaceous female body made the matter all the more difficult. The simple golden band on her left hand, along with her Torture and Interrogation Specialist Badge helped to ease the difficulty slightly, but also added a great deal of fear and apprehension on their parts.

Yes, today was not a good day to be the attendants to the Hokage. Anko Namikaze was paying her husband a visit at the office, and she was smiling. The only times that Anko smiled publicly were when she was royally pissed off.

As the oak door of the office opened slowly, Minato had the feeling of a cold draft blowing into his office. He looked up to see his smiling new wife, and for a second was happy to see her coming to pay him a visit. They had only been married a month or two, and she was already coming to visit him at work. The kunai that landed beside his desk reminded him that he had not remarried to a particularly sane woman.

Noting that the door was closed, Minato pulled the kunai from the desk, and turned to face his very angry wife. "Anko-chan, is violence really necessary?" The second kunai that whizzed by his head and cut his cheek silenced the older man.

"Violence is always necessary Minato-kun" the honorific dripped a passionate vehemence, "…especially when the one I promised to serve and protect decides to keep secrets from me." Minato had the sense of mind to not turn and grab the other kunai, but smirk back at his new wife.

"The Hokage is honor bound to keep some secrets from the shinobi who serve under him." This time, Minato turned aside as a much slower kunai sailed towards him, obviously meant to throw him off from the grab his wife made at his arm.

"Not like putting me in charge of a bloody apprenticeship!" Her anger was out in full force, and the kunoichi had a share of hurt in her eyes as she stared down the leader of the leaf village. "I was apprenticed to Orochimaru, and look how that turned out! Now you want to have me take on one of Naruto's best friends as an apprentice?" Minato let out a defeated sigh and gestured to the chair across from his desk.

"I have faith that you will not turn her into another version of yourself. Besides, in order for the council to allow me to place Naruto on a team I had to assure them that his teammates would not be a hindrance to the village's weapon." Anko seemed to tense slightly at the word weapon, but nodded for him to continue. "Sasuke Uchiha is already going to be apprenticed in his spare time by his father and mother no doubt, both of whom are able ninja. Naruto will receive basic training in a number of areas from Kakashi. Sakura though comes from a family with no background in the shinobi world." The woman's eyes widened before she turned away, a boyish look of chagrin crossing her face.

"So, she's the same situation as me then, huh? Where the other great individuals of my age get put on teams and those who don't come from any shinobi family get training so they don't fall behind?" The woman turned and glared at the man across from her. "I'm really getting sick and tired of the council jerking this family around, Minato." Her eyes were rimmed with the pretense of tears and bored into the man's uneasy conscience.

"I know. I'm sorry that you again got roped into the politics of this mess as well." Anko smirked across from him, taking the moment to sexily stretch her legs and cross them. In her seated position it made the already high rising shorts become truly scandalous.

"It's not too bad of a deal, being forced into a political marriage and all…especially when we get to play out all sorts of lewd scenarios of teacher and student in the bedroom…" Anko's grin unnerved Minato slightly, but he caught her subtle reference to her predominant worry.

"Yes, but fortunately for me, you're a better mentor than the snake bastard ever was." She smirked slightly, letting some of her tension about being a teacher drop from her shoulders.

Crossing around the table, Minato brought his hand down to cup her face. "As for the rest of your comment…" Closing her eyes and wetting her lips slightly, Anko was disappointed when he chastely kissed her forehead. "Sorry Anko, but I'm still not ready yet. It's still…" Before he could move, her arms were around him, pulling him into an embrace. Any trace of sexual tension was gone in that instant as she comforted her childhood mentor.

"I understand Minato. I really do." The kunoichi pulled back, her eyes comforting and accepting. "Honestly, I don't know if I'm ready for that yet either…I like you a lot, but I still don't know if I feel comfortable with the whole ordeal…" Minato nodded and smiled apologetically. She blushed prettily and reached out to cuff the man in the back of the head. "Though I am glad to see you still act like a total flake." Minato smirked and she stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

"Still, I'm glad we could at least honor Kushina's wish, even if it did give the council an apoplexy." Anko rolled her eyes and fixed him with a glare.

"Ah screw the council! It's not like they ever do us any good anyway!" Anko's favorite oath brought a smile to Minato's face as he recollected the importance of that fateful statement.

xXxXxXx

_Naruto had walked into the village, surrounded by the diplomatic treaty group, exhausted and tired from the journey. The group had done nothing but run since they got back, and it was obvious everyone had been expecting a warm and happy welcome. At the gate however, Minato had forced a mask of calmness and authority over his face as he watched the group approach. Part of tore inside as the group approached. _

"_I'm glad to see that you all returned safely" Naruto was started from a tired reverie by his father's voice. He looked up expectantly, hoping for a kind word and smile from his dad and mom. His eyes hardened though when he recognized his dad in full diplomat mode. "You all will be staying at a local hot spring hotel, in order to rest before the diplomatic missions begin tomorrow. Fugaku, Mikoto, Sasuke, you will not be going with the group. There are certain matters that I need to discuss with you concerning matters with your clan." The Uchiha had nodded, and Naruto had looked over to see a tired Sasuke shrug his condolences. Minato was glad to see that interaction though, as it gave him hope that the two boys would help each other through the coming pain. 'Hopefully you were right Kushina, hopefully the two can grow up to be good friends.' _

_As the groups left, Minato noticed Naruto break away to approach him. Minato shook his head sadly and pointed towards the group that was departing. Naruto's head fell, turning to run and catch up with the others without turning back. Before the boy had gone too far, Anko came out of the shadows and wacked the man across the back of the head. _

"_What the hell do you think you're doing? The kid's obviously been gone for a while and misses you, chase after the kid and give him a damned hug." Minato looked down and shot her a glance that held sadness and pain. "Don't tell me, the council thinks that you interacting with him might tip him off about Kushina!" At his nod, the lady turned and spat on the sidewalk. "Screw the council! It's not like they do us any good anyway!" Minato seemed taken aback for a second, long enough for Anko to pull him upright and glare angrily in his face. "You're the Hokage, act like it Minato! I for one know that you're better than letting a bunch of old blowhards order you around!" Minato smirked slightly at this, nodding his agreement. As he turned and jogged towards the retreating group, he shot a thank you over his shoulder. In an instant he had pulled out his famous kunai, and was gone in an instant. _

_xXxXxXx_

_Two years had passed since the death of Kushina, and Minato could not stand to look at the document in his hands. It was a letter from the Daimyo himself, the only individual who held any control over Minato's decisions. It appeared that the Lord of the Land of Fire had been informed that there was trouble brewing between the nobles of the fire nation and the militarized factions within the hidden village. The solution was to find and marry a wife who would be of noble upbringing and have good access to the traditional aspects of the nobility's culture. _

_As he scanned the list, Minato sighed in frustration. He did not know any of these women, and doubtless none of them would understand Naruto. As he made his way out of the office, Minato felt a swirl of emotion run through him. He was frustrated by the fractions that were developing within his village. Over the last few years, more and more military might had come to rest within Konoha. There were the new Kumo-nin, who had integrated very well into the local culture, taking on roles in the upper echelons of Konoha's strike forces. There had also been one or two political marriages between the young shinobi of the Uchiha clan with the Kumo-nin, leading to a consolidation of new power within the village. Minato had been slightly surprised by this decision of Fugaku's, seeing it as a breaking with the traditional Uchiha favored view of seclusion. However, it had managed to stall the disintegration of the Sharingan within Konoha. _

_Pausing at the steps at the bottom of the Hokage tower, Minato looked out over the village and sighed. There were powers arranging against him, both inside and out. Many of the villagers, with good reason, feared the introduction of the Kumo-nin to the village, and were wary of the treaties that Minato had formed. While he was still feared as a legendary shinobi, many were beginning to doubt his political skill, feeling he relied too much on the trust of his allies, and on agreements made to strengthen the bonds between groups. Sighing, the man enjoyed his quiet walk home, coming to the small house where he and son lived. A certain caretaker often stopped in to take of Naruto when he was away, making Minato smile. _

'_Anko, I don't know how Naruto and I would have made it through this without your support.' The paper that was folded in his pockets, listing his potential suitors, dampened his mood slightly for a moment. Shaking his head clear, the thirty eight year old entered his house. He was immediately greeted by a water bucket dropping on his head, along with the chorus of "YOU FELL FOR IT!" Minato spluttered under the batch of cool water, before turning to the side and glaring at his son and Anko Mitarashi. Despite the age difference between the two, they both held that infamous grin and smile of Kushina, easing the man's mood slightly and drawing a rare chuckle out of him. _

"_Since you two made the mess, you get to clean it up!" Both sets of eyes turned puppy dog eyes on him, though he could tell they were mostly glad that he had finally come home. A glance around the small room showed that Naruto and Anko had been going over sealing basics again, focusing on storage scrolls. The non-descript room was well lived in, and Minato smirked at the two as he shook his head, denying their wish for any reconsideration. "I'm going to go get changed and then we should get some dinner." Minato walked away from the two, who sported matching chagrined expressions. "And no shadow clones either!" Grumbles followed Minato as he headed upstairs to change. By the time he had returned, the place was cleaned up and dinner was ready on the table. They talked of random things throughout their days, and were generally happy and talkative. It was surprisingly Anko who lent any manners to the group, both boys seeming to want to dig heedlessly into her well prepared meal. Anko whacked the would be food thieves with a wooden spoon whenever they hovered around the next course that she brought to the table. Minato was loath to admit it, but she cooked better than Kushina. He was glad when she agreed to take on the house-watching responsibilities for Naruto, fearing that his life-long friend would want to train more often. She had merely shrugged and told him that there were many ways to protect someone you care for, many of them not involving training in the least. After Naruto had gone to bed, the two stayed up talking, and Minato brought out the paper slip that the Daimyo had sent him. _

_Anko had snatched the list out his hands before he could react, a snake mouth grasping the pronouncement suddenly. The snake retreated back into her sleeve as the woman looked over the list, before setting it done and silently rising to get a cup of tea. It was not a promising reaction, as Anko only went to her tea when she was truly pissed. "Don't listen to them…They obviously are not thinking straight as they left off the most important noblewoman living in Konoha." Minato was surprised that this was her source of anger as Anko returned to the table, her grip on the tea mug white. _

"_Who did they leave off the list?" Minato asked, carefully pulling the list back from her reach. Anko shook her head, and took a sip of the tea. When she set it back down she fixed Minato with a hard stare. _

"_How long do you have to decide?" Minato was still non-plussed by her reactions. There was something she was keeping from him, and he really had no clue for once in his life about what it might be. _

"_They want me to go through the list, courting each lady for at least a month before I decide whether to pursue an option or not. Still, I don't know any of these women, and I refuse to listen to the council's suggestion on matters of the heart. I guess I'll have to give them each a try though." Anko shook her head, turning away from him to hide the tears in her eyes. "Anko, why is this upsetting you so much?" He tried to turn to get a better look at her, but the woman cast her eyes down, and reached up to let her hair down. It was very unusual for her to take her hair down, she only did it when she was really upset. _

"_Just don't listen to them alright. Don't marry any old noble woman or whatever, it's not worth it. Kushina wouldn't have wanted you to marry again unless you loved the woman anyways." A brush for hair appeared in Anko's hands, and she handed it to Minato. "If you're just going to stand there and stare, you might as well be useful." The man rose and began to brush out Anko's hair, trying not to notice the soft platter of tears on her knees. When he was about to speak again, Anko straightened and cut him off by reaching a hand out to grab onto the brush. "The name they left off of that list, Minato, was that of the Mitarashi family." Minato felt his breath hitch, and stared at the hand that clenched tightly over his. "I'm the only daughter of the family, and since my father wanted to keep the power of the family centered around his descendants, he sent me to Konoha in the hopes that I would fall in the line of duty. However, I am still of noble upbringing and lineage." Her eyes turned back to him, and he could see the tears clearly in her face now. "If you find yourself unable to be with any of the women on that list, I'll take the place of them so you can at least have a friend with you for the rest of your days. Better that than some step-mom that would squash all of the fun out of Naruto." Her quiet sobs were the only sound in the room as Minato held onto her hand, the brush cast aside. _

"_Screw the council, it's not like they ever do us any good anyway!" Minato surprised Anko with his sudden vehemence, as he turned to face her. "I'll still go through and meet these women Anko, but you are the one I want to be with. You care for me and Naruto more than anyone I know, and understand us better than anyone else I know. I doubt any of them will live up to you." The passion in his eyes caught Anko off guard, leaving her staring into those perfect blue orbs. _

"_Minato…" her breath hitched as she lunged forward and kissed him on the lips. Minato stiffened at first, almost pulling back. After a moment's hesitation though, he leaned into the embrace. The kiss was full of longing, and it was a while before either pulled back to look one another in the eye. Anko smiled from the flushed look on his face, and took the second to catch her breath. "I guess that means I'm a bit more than a housekeeper now, huh?" Minato chuckled and held her close, even as she wrapped her arms around him. "I'd still like to take it one day at a time if that's alright with you?" Minato nodded and held onto Anko as her breathing quieted. As the night faded, two hearts that had been torn by sadness began to mend. _

xXxXxXx

The two newly-weds found themselves wrapped in a calm embrace when a knock came from the outside door. Pulling away from Anko and settling into his seat, Minato called for them to enter. Kakashi strolled casually into the room, shutting the door behind himself and giving an arched eyebrow towards Anko. 'Sensei always did know how to pick the crazy ones…'

Anko stayed in her seat, but motioned for Kakashi to take the other one next to her. Kakashi did so, and gave a silent thank you to the kunoichi. "I am happy to report that my team was given the documents and were then spotted heading towards the library to do some reconnaissance on me. It seems that they also plan to disobey the rule about eating already, and may actually have a plan of attack for facing me tomorrow." Minato smiled slightly from behind his desk, nodding in satisfaction.

"That's good Kakashi. Have you worked with Anko before on missions?" The non sequitor drew up Kakashi's eyebrows again, but he nodded in the affirmative. "Good. She will be joining your team on missions, as she will be apprenticing young Sakura." This drew a puzzled look from Kakashi. "Normally, only one jonin is given to each team, but yours will be special. As Naruto is on your team, the other individuals need to be quickly honed into weapons for the village." Kakashi nodded in acceptance with the Hokage, but Anko noted the slight disapproval he also gave to the term 'weapon'. Minato paused to take a document from one of the drawers before handing it over to Kakashi. "She will not be involved in the team selection exercise, but after the group has passed she will take up an apprentice time slot with Sakura. Naruto will receive personal training from you, and Fugaku and Mikoto will train Sasuke personally as well. I've cleared time in all of your dockets to allow for this." Kakashi accepted the piece of paper with a frown on his face.

"The council is ordering this, aren't they? In order to insure that Naruto becomes a functioning 'weapon' for our village?" Minato nodded, a grim look on his own face. Inwardly though he was pleased to see that Kakashi did not entirely approve of the plan. "It is also my own will Kakashi, though for a different reason. Naruto is going to be targeted by various groups as he grows up, as are all Jinchuuriki. As such, he will need powerful teammates if they are going to protect him." Kakashi smirked ruefully at this and nodded once more.

"Alright, I expect the team exercise tomorrow to not take too long, so I'll expect you to show up every day from tomorrow at Training Ground Three. As I'm supposed to take this sort of training seriously now, I guess you'll have to show up around noon. I should have them nice and worn out by then." Kakashi turned and cleared his throat before addressing the Hokage. "I would also like to request that for the first two months my team not be given any missions, even D-ranks. I plan on working them into the ground during that time so that they will be competent ninja's before they leave the village." Minato nodded in agreement, and the three rose from their seats.

"I expect a progress report on their developments every two weeks Kakashi. Hopefully with a forced training schedule like that, the three will develop quickly. I know that Sasuke and Naruto have a slight rivalry going, so forced training like that will surely end up pushing both of them to excel at a rapid pace." Minato smiled at the two of them and nodded, signaling that they could leave. In an instant, the two had leapt from the room through the windows, and Minato was left with a once more empty office. "I do hope that those two can work well together."

xXxXxXx

xXxXxXx

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura poured over the information in front of them, scanning for any weaknesses or striking points. They were all unwilling to admit defeat yet, but it seemed that their new sensei was quite capable. Sasuke sighed, pulling back to rub his eyes in frustration. "We have a man who is talented in all five of the elemental disciplines, whose created several original jutsu, was trained by both the current Hokage, and one of the Sannin, not to mention his access to the Sharingan…we are totally screwed."

Naruto shook his head, pulling back from the details in front of him. "Maybe…but it does seem like he has one weakness we could exploit." Sakura and Sasuke both sent him a questioning look. "It says here that despite all of that training, his chakra reserves are still a little under that of an average jonin. If we can trap him in a couple of chakra drain seals, we can run him down in no time."

"That's assuming your test is the standard combat one though…you never know what you might get hit with." Team 7 turned as one at the intruding comment. Shikamaru Nara, along with Choji and Ino sat reclined by a similar table, a bingo book in hand. "Glad to see that others thought this was a good idea too…it's way too troublesome having to face a jonin in order to determine our combat readiness." Naruto smirked at the boy, while Sakura and Sasuke had already gone back to pouring over the information.

"So, there are different tests that will go to different teams?" Shikamaru nodded at the other boy. "What are the other possible tests? And why do they make different tests?"

"Simple really…each year they only let three teams graduate, and those teams each have to have a specific purpose. There has to be a tracking group, a capture group, and an attack group." Shikamaru nodded to his teammates. "We're the capture group, and I'm fairly sure that Kiba, Shino, and Hinata are the tracking group. That leaves you three as the attack group." Shikamaru's eyes turned hard for a second as he stared at Naruto. "That also means that you'll have the most dangerous missions, so try not to die, okay? It'd be way too troublesome if you did." The blonde nodded, just in time for him to catch Sakura stand up to leave.

"Come on Naruto, we've already gone over all the data we can. We need to start setting up traps and getting the lay of the land." Shikamaru shrugged, turning back to his work. "We've got to determine what sort of training ground we'll be at, and set up some practice runs for how we'll fight this guy. Sasuke, you think you could get your family to deliver us some food out there?" Sasuke nodded silently, rising with the others. As they were about to leave, Sasuke grimaced, turned over his shoulder and called back a good luck while staring at Ino. The Yamanaka girl blushed and smiled back, earning a twitch of a smile from the Uchiha.

xXxXxXx

Naruto sighed as he stretched out on his sleeping bag, content to be out of the house for one more night this week. He looked over by the fire and saw Sakura turning in for a bit as well. Sasuke would stand first watch on the training ground, making sure Kakashi didn't sneak up on the group the day before the test. Laying back against his built in pillow, the Namikaze heir smiled and let the tension of the day release from his body. He was very wound up about the upcoming fight, and hoped that his team did well together. They had always stuck by each other, even through the roughest of times. A light rain began to fall, and Naruto groaned, his night beanie falling off his head as he pulled out a hammock and tarp set. Sakura joined him over by the tree as well, whispering a good night as she tucked into her own sleeping apparatus. The rain had started to fall heavily by now, and Naruto grimaced as he listened to the pattering water, his mind casting back to less pleasant times.

_It had been raining for hours…Everyone gathered outside, talking about the death of his mother. The other kids stood a bit off from him, unsure of how to comfort the boy in his pain. There had been rumors about the town that Kushina's death had unsettled Naruto, making him extremely violent if others approached him. He knew why the rumors were circulating, but Naruto didn't much care. He was just glad for the rain as it hid his tears. 'How'd they expect me to react anyways? By taking it calmly that my mother died? That my father was unable to stop the bastard who did this? That we can't even get revenge on the guy since he's already dead?' Red light began to gather around Naruto's fists, and the boy had to take several halting breaths, willing the rage away. 'And now that stupid fox is acting up as well…isn't this great?' He had been told a week after the diplomatic hearings had completed. His father was there when he was told, and he had placed several restriction seals on Naruto before they had gone to visit his mother. They had all blown off when he had seen her with his own eyes, seen that she was truly dead and wasn't coming back. The fox had almost gotten loose; he realized that because he remembered blacking out for a few minutes, and when he awoke his father had cuts up and down his arms, and was panting heavily with a seal graft emblazoned on his palm. Afterwards, his father explained that the seal had loosened, and there was no way to tighten it for a while. Naruto would have to learn to control his anger, to keep the power of the fox in check. Just in time for everyone on the hospital staff to spread the rumors like wildfire. 'Apparently people notice when a kid punches a wall in two while in a fit of demonic rage…' The melancholy sarcasm did nothing to improve his mood. The rain was the only thing that was currently helping; it hid his silent tears as rain tracks. As the service wound down, Naruto noticed a few people remaining. It was a while before he realized that two of them were standing by his side, not moving away with their parents as they left. _

_ Sakura and Sasuke each stood silently with Naruto, looking towards the monument. "The rain's really helpful, isn't it?" Sasuke's question caught Naruto off guard, and when he turned to look he noticed the red in his eyes as well. It was obvious that the boy had been crying. The service was for Kushina only, but Naruto knew that Sasuke would be going through the death of his brother as well. "I wish it had rained like this on the day of Itachi's service. Would have made it a bit more bearable to be in public…" Naruto grimaced and looked away, fresh tears brimming in his eyes. He was surprised when he felt Sakura grab his shoulder. _

_"I'll be here for both of you. We just became friends a short while ago, so I don't want to lose you both already." Naruto looked up at her face, his eyes wide. He rushed in and grabbed her in a hug, and she held onto him. Sasuke came over and stood by the two, watching as his best friend wept openly for the first time. He felt himself let tears fall anew; they were only children, but they had both already lost someone held one of her arms out to the other boy, and Sasuke lunged in, breaking down alongside Naruto. Sakura merely held onto her friends, silent tears trailing down her face as well._

As the storm moved off, Naruto felt himself curl more into his sleeping bag, his hands clutched in a tight grip, and a single tear trailing down one of his cheeks. _  
><em>

xXxXxXx

The dawn came early over Training Ground Three, and in its morning light Kakashi smirked happily at his new team. They were taking this challenge very seriously it seemed. There were several traps hidden in the surrounding areas, some deliberately hidden well and others on display. His team was intelligent as well, as he detected several landscape altering genjutsu, as well as a heavy feeling in the air. All three of them were up now and dressed, looking far more serious than they had the other day.

Naruto had foregone the orange outfit for a black one instead. Black shinobi cargo pants bulging with straps of kunai and exploding tags covered up metal shin guards. The sandals were also black, and had obvious metal plates in the bottom from the slight click they made when he walked. His shirt was also black, but bore dark red flames that covered his chest and arms, ending at the elbows. Mesh armor showed underneath the shirt, and black gloves with metal backs covered his hands. His hair was covered with a bandana carrying his leaf head band, and his torso was covered with a bandoleer that was tight to his chest. Underneath were several more scrolls, these ones bearing obviously high-explosive seals. 'So he's their entry and demolition expert…have to make sure not to get too close.' Kakashi also noticed the trench knives in his hands and grimaced as he watched chakra trace the edges of the blade. It was rumored that Asuma Sarutobi had given Naruto some pointers in how to use those in his style. All in all, a very lethal wide area combat warrior.

Sasuke for his part had a very Spartan look to his ensemble. Mesh armor covered by a long sleeved black shirt and pants, with similar clanking sandals to Naruto's. His hair was out and falling free, his headband strapped to his right forearm lengthwise, like a wrist guard. He sat, polishing a sword, and it was then that Kakashi noticed the pattern covering the Uchiha's outfit in small flecks here and there. All of Sasuke's clothing was adorned with life-size images of a fully active Sharingan, littered across various locations. As Kakashi lingered over one of the eyes he felt himself being drawn in, and immediately broke the genjutsu expertly. Sasuke did not look up though from polishing his katana, though Sakura did, and she turned to look straight at him.

She was also dressed spartanly, though she went with a forest green outfit. It was a simple shirt and shorts combination, but mesh armor and heavy gloves completed the ensemble. He noted with some trepidation that her hair was being held back by her headband, and her eyes were steel jade as they bored into his location. He watched her lips move from where he was at and sighed in frustration. 'Minato is right, this team is going to pass the bell test with no trouble what-so-ever'. Jumping down from the tree he was in, Kakashi surmised the group in front of him. It was only two hours after they were told to meet here, and all of them looked about ready to murder him.

"So, you all decided to show up a day before the test and get ready for me…well, I'm quite flattered. I also assume that this heavy feeling in the air is moisture that someone's prepared for a specific jutsu." None of them answered him, and inwardly Kakashi was beaming. His team was going to kick the crap out of the other Jonin's and he honestly couldn't wait to show up Gai's team. Keeping his face placid, the silver haired ninja reached into his pocket and produced two tiny bells. "These are your mission. You must retrieve a bell in order to eat lunch. In addition, whosoever does not retrieve a bell will be sent back to the academy for further training for one year." Kakashi waited and was surprised when there was no outburst.

Sasuke smirked at him, his voice coming out in a low drawl, almost as if bored. "Are those the exact rules, Kakashi-sensei?" Kakashi nodded, hoping for the usual outburst he received. "If you're done trying to cause dissension in our ranks, we'll take those bells from you now." Kakashi felt his eyebrow's rise as suddenly there was a heavy mist covering the area. He watched as the three ninja in front of him faded out of existence, and a voice seeped out through the fog.

"Hidden Mist Technique. A perfect counter to the Copy-Cat Ninja." Sakura's voice floated in, and Kakashi reacted immediately to the sound of incoming kunai that were almost masked by her pronouncement. Kakashi moved again and again as kunai rained down on his location, always from a different direction. Footsteps were heard in the mist, far too many for the three ninja he supposedly faced. 'Shadow-clone jutsu and kunai, how much worse could this get…' Kakashi took a deep breath and exhaled it at the incoming kunai, blowing the mist back and away. When he did, he got a sinking feeling as he noticed the beginning of a sealing jutsu being laid by the thrown kunai. Thinking to jump over it, he encountered several trip wires surrounding his location, obviously placed during the passing of the kunai. 'This team is very, very good…' Kakashi's hands flew through various seals at a rapid pace. 'But I'm better.' At the end of the sequence, rocks rose from the ground, disrupting the sealing jutsu and tearing through the various trip wires. As he did, he caught a glimpse of a Sharingan out of the corner of his eyes, and winced as he fought off the effects of a genjutsu. Sasuke was quickly upon the jounin, and the blows from the boys katana pushed the ninja back in a worried fashion.

"You're impressively fast for your age Sasuke, however, you're a might bit hot-headed. You need to learn to control that temper you've got, you know?" Sasuke smirked as the two traded blows, sparks flying between his katana and Kakashi's kunai.

"You think I'm hot-headed, huh? Well in that case, why don't I turn up the heat?" The raven swung his blade past Kakashi's shoulder, surprise lighting the Jonin's face as the blade in front of him began to blaze. "Hot-headedness is a trait of the Uchiha, it's probably why we can use the Sharingan better too…" Twin tomoe spun in the boys eyes as he faced the elder Jonin, and the man grimaced in frustration.

"I must be losing my edge if a couple of kids can push me this hard…" Kakashi didn't move as Sasuke charged, and at the last instant the boy got a sinking feeling as he ran the man through, water dousing his flame blade. "Then again, the Sharingan is only really great when it's used by a level-headed fighter, eh Sasuke?" Sasuke felt a kunai press against his neck, and looked back in fear at the man holding him. "Sorry kid, but your part in this little battle ends here…" Kakashi moved for a knockout strike to the back of the boys head but was stopped when several Shuriken flew in from the side. A hissing sound filled the space between the two. Both jumped apart as the clearing was filled with actinic fire and pressure, blowing them backward. When Kakashi found his feet again, his ears were ringing, and he knew something was wrong. Try as he might, the Jonin couldn't hear clearly out of his ears. Thinking it a genjutsu, he quickly tried to dispel it, but it was to no avail. 'Guess he really did deafen me…' Turning back to the battle at hand, Kakashi dodged expertly as his senses kicked in, avoiding several senbon. From their trajectory, he figured they would have landed in rather unpleasant regions.

"Sakura, I was wondering when we'd get to fight…you and Naruto seemed content to sit back and let Sasuke do most of the fighting…" Kakashi dodged to the side as her axe kick missed his head. As it did, he noted a small depression form under the impact. 'So, she's started to figure out how to enhance her fighting style with chakra…definitely not going to read during this fight.'

"Yeah, well, we had to make sure we got the trap set up nice and neat, didn't we?" Sakura's tone made Kakashi's blood run cold. He had not noticed any trap yet, which meant that there was a definite problem. The girl moved in quickly, cutting off his line of thought as she unleashed senbon after senbon. Kakashi noticed the lines attached to them, and swallowed heavily when he noticed that they all seemed to move in time with Sakura's will, confining his movements to certain patterns.

"What trap would that be? Beyond your little wire tricks, I don't see anything too dangerous at the moment…" The thick fog had started to roll in again, and Kakashi grimaced as his peripheral vision was lost.

"Isn't it odd that if your hearing was damaged by the explosion that we can talk perfectly well right now?" Shock ran through the Jonin, but he steeled his nerves, facing down the pinkette. He noticed with some worry that there were once more far too many footsteps in the surrounding fog. "When you pushed the seal back with that earth jutsu of yours, Naruto planned it so that his seals would cover a wide area with silence deadening. That means that as I push you back, you'll eventually enter a zone where you can't hear anything. Combine that with the mist jutsu and you won't be able to see anything." Kakashi grimaced as a senbon finally struck home, embedding deeply in his forearm. "And now you won't be able to feel anything…Not a terribly advanced poison, nor lethal, but it should numb your entire body completely in a matter of a few minutes." Kakashi actually chuckled at this, causing the confident girl to back off a bit.

"Pretty good, but you are fighting a Jonin, you know?" The man dissolved into water again, and Sakura punched the ground in frustration, sending tremors through the earth. Kakashi smirked in the distant fog, trying to get a feel for how far the silencing seal extended. After several throws, Kakashi determined that he had a ten by ten square of hearing available to him, and that the rest of the surroundings were completely negated by sound cancellation. "I think it's time to end play time for now…" With a surge of chakra, Kakashi drew in the surrounding mist, converting it all into a large jutsu that he rather liked employing. While not exactly deadly, it did serve to force apart close quarter combatants. A shadow clone appeared next to the Jonin, and the two turned and faced one another. "Synthesis technique: Typhoon jutsu" Wind and water raced together around the two dopplegangers, and in an instant a massive wall of wind and water raced out, blowing away the mist and knocking over trees and surrounding areas. When Kakashi finished, he was surprised to find a smirking Naruto standing in front of him. In his hands were the two bells.

"How the hell did you get those?" Kakashi flashed through several seals, getting ready to jump on the little brat. As he did though, he noticed he was surrounded by several dozens of the Naruto's, all holding the bells.

"Sorry sensei, but we knew you'd get frustrated and blow away that mist eventually. It was a pain to have to keep repositioning my clones so that they were close enough so that when you did we could jump in while you were distracted." All of the clones jumped back and Kakashi saw the clones place a bell on the ground in front of Sakura and Sasuke. "And now, we have all retrieved one of your bells…possibly. We won't tell you which one is the clones and which one is real until you pass all of us." Kakashi felt his ire rising, but suppressed it quickly when a surge of pride went through him.

"Fine. I know when I'm outmatched. You all pass." Grins broke out on the team, and Kakashi smirked as all of the clones dispersed. When they were gone even the bells disappeared, and Kakashi noticed a sudden jingle at his waist. Glancing down, the ninja noticed the two bells hanging on his waistband, a senbon needle penetrating slightly into his hip. On the senbon needle was a complex seal that Kakashi recognized immediately as a silencing technique.

"That was very well done you three, even if you didn't manage to get the bells." All three of the kids smiled up at the jonin as he pulled the senbon from his waist. "You still pass, so lunch is on me. After some food we'll return here so I can explain how and when team seven will meet for training." Kakashi shook his head as the two exuberant teammates cheered, while Sasuke merely chuckled lightly and smirked at the teacher.

xXxXxXx

As the group approached the dining fly, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto began paying very close attention to their new teacher. The words he was saying did not quite register with the group, as they were more focused on the mask of the man. When he had mentioned that they would go out to eat, they realized that they might be getting the chance to see under the famous Hatake mask.

Settling down into the seats at a local yakiniku bar, the group began scanning around the room, trying to note any distractions that they could preemptively remove. As they did, they noticed Shikamaru's team and Kiba's team sitting and eating together as well. From the looks of it, all of them were worn out; probably from similar training exercises as team seven they figured. Focusing on the man in front of them, they moved through ordering food without ever letting their eyes leave the Jonin's face. When the tea arrived, they waited on baited breath as he reached up to lower the first mask, only to reveal a second mask. Confused, they watched as the man proceeded to lift the tea cup and seemingly drink through the face covering.

"How the heck does he do that?" Sasuke shook his head in bewilderment in answer to Naruto's question. Kakashi's eyes formed into tiny smiles, as he watched his protégé's.

"It's a family secret I've not passed down yet, but we place seals within our masks so that food matter can pass directly through it. Pretty cool huh?" All of the gennin twitched slightly at this, though they jumped in surprise when the food arrived. Naruto focused on his meal of pork and rice, trying to get the strange thought of a seal master making such a useless design.

"Well, now that we're all seated, I can explain what one of our first missions is going to be." This caused Naruto to look up sharply, a puzzled look on his face.

"How can you know what mission we're going to have? Did the Hokage already assign us a mission?" Kakashi noticed how the title Hokage dripped venom, but let it slide for the moment.

"Yes, well, we won't be starting this mission for a month or two. Need to get you academy students up to speed with being a full fledged ninja and mastering some of your basic elemental ninjutsu." Naruto kept his gaze locked on the man, cerulean blue steel not flickering once. "Once you are ready though, we have a diplomatic mission that will take us south of wave country. There are certain artifacts in a destroyed village that the Hokage wants our group to retrieve. As we could be gone for quite some time, I have to make sure you three are capable to handle things on your own if we were to get separated. To this end, we'll also be taking one of the other rookie teams along with us on this mission. Consider it one last class trip if you have to…" Kakashi faded off, noting the mixed reactions of his group. Naruto seemed to be rather quiet, his gaze focused back on his food. Kakashi sensed some edginess creeping out of him, along with a shrinking away from his other teammates. Sasuke had simply shrugged and looked away, though Kakashi noted that the older boy seemed merely lost in thought about something. Sakura was smiling slightly to herself, obviously happy and looking forward to the trip.

"Anyways, we'll be meeting the other rookies after our meal is finished. If you look around now, you'll be able to see who you might be working with ahead of schedule too." All of them perked up at this and glanced around. Naruto noticed Ino and her group, as well as Hinata off in one of the corners.

"But since you three did manage to trick me earlier, I guess I'll pay for the meal today. Focus on your food for now, and we'll get introductions and team dynamics figured out later, alright?" Naruto turned back to the food in front of him, grinning as the barbeque was passed around.

xXxXxXx

Well, there it is, the first chapter in a long time. Not entirely happy as it was mostly a set-up and back story arc. If I ever get the motivation, I might do a side story for the Anko/Minato relationship development.I know, I'm leaving you on a cliff hanger for team assignments, but hey, it's all for the good, trust me. Also, I'll be opening up a poll for which team should be worked with, either the team with Ino on it, or the team with Hinata. I won't reveal how this will affect the storyline, or why it is a decision that needs to be made. Mostly, it's being done because I have a hidden idea for how the story will play out, and I need your help (the reader) with it. Also, the team members for those two are not important for this development per se, but it will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

With that, expect another update in two weeks or so! I'm hopefully gonna be able to keep that up as a schedule, so let me know what you think! As always, read and review!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the original bits. Which aren't much.

xXxXxXx

"_Your mom was not originally from this village, Naruto. She was from a village to the south of Wave country, known as the whirlpool village. She was sent to our village as part of a treaty, where Konoha would receive both the training in sealing jutsu that her family had mastered, as well as the next Jinchuuriki for the Nine Tailed Fox." Minato held onto his son as the boy wept, the broken hospital room and flickering red energy offsetting the normally familial comfort. _

_ The room was plain, with no obvious decorations. It had a bed, on which lay the body of a long deceased female, red hair framing an ashen face. A broken vase of flowers lay next to the bed, knocked there from a bedside dresser. The white tiles and walls were splattered in one or two places by blood. Immediately next to the bed was a small crater, with cracks and fissures spidering away from the center. Naruto for his part was curled into his father's side, repeating a mantra of apologies, even as the red energy faded from the room. Minato shushed him with kind words, his hands combing over his son's hair, ignoring the slight amount of blood that would drip in from time to time. His hands were mostly healed, but an obvious sealing mark could be seen on the backs of his palms, the symbols etched in blood by the painful restriction of power. _

_ "When she first came to the village, she was very young. She was even in my class at the academy." Minato chuckled as he recalled Kushina's tomboyish face. "She always used to call me a flake, and even beat me up once or twice in the class during our sparring sessions. Still, because I wanted to be better than her and everyone else, I worked hard." Naruto had mostly stopped crying, and the demonic energy from before had left the room entirely. Distantly, Minato realized that the hospital staff was starting to recover from the sudden release of chakra, some of them hustling to check on patients. None though came near the Hokage's room, obviously fearful of whatever had occurred within. "Eventually, I got to prove to her that I was not a flake, when I rescued her; I'll always remember that day, her hair was the most beautiful shade of red, and it had led me straight to her." Looking down, Minato realized his son had fallen asleep. 'Probably wasn't ready to handle that amount of chakra being released…I'll have to be careful though, as the seal will now be more readily loosened as he ages.' Picking his son up, Minato placed him into a chair in the corner of the room. The boy hardly stirred at all, settling into a small ball on the surface of the chair. Minato could see one or two tears coming from the boys eyes, and could not help but feel anguish for his son. _

_ "I'm sorry Kushina. Sorry that I had to keep him from you while I had that treaty signed. Sorry, I had to tell him that you were just sleeping for a little while." Minato's voice broke as he faced his wife, staring into the long ashen face of his beloved. "We'll have a proper service soon, I promise. After this village stops going to hell in a hand basket." Tears streamed silently down Minato's face, even as the young leader stood resolutely. "I don't know how we will manage without you by our sides, but we will try. I will raise Naruto, and I will find ways to keep your spirit alive for him." A small wisp of lingering red chakra, swirling like a will-o-wisp, tangled itself around Minato's hand. The man looked down at it, first in shock, then let out a low chuckle. "The fox seems to mock me even now, he has given Naruto the same color of chakra as your hair. I miss you Kushina." Minato pulled the seals from the health monitors, allowing the machines to properly display the status of his wife for the first time in weeks. Minato turned, and sat with his son, listening to the sounds of the hospital staff slowly approach his room. _

_ The Hokage set his face, drying the tears from his eyes. In that moment, the Fourth Hokage felt part of his Will of Fire flicker, ever so briefly. _

_xXxXxXx_

"Well, I'll settle up the bill. Why don't you three race back to the training ground and see if you can beat me there?" The smile in Kakashi's voice woke Naruto from his reverie. He took a moment to collect himself before nodding to the others, both of whom had been giving him sidelong glances. Naruto smirked, and pressed a seal on his inner arm as he jumped over the other two, racing out the door. Sasuke's body began to shimmer, and Sakura was already moving to her medicine pouch, pulling out a single small pill.

Kakashi smirked as his three protégé dashed out the door, taking his time as he pulled money from his pocket, before slowly making his way up to the cashier. As he did, he noted that the other groups of gennin had also disappeared, and smiled as he thought of the upcoming training and missions; it was rare that one got to work with the children of clan heads. He nodded politely to both Asuma and Kurenai as they checked out; Asuma gave him a sidelong grin as Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the pair suggestively.

"Honestly, Kakashi, you imply more with that placid face of yours than Anko does with her suggestive garb!" Kurenai's chide remark drew a small smile from Asuma, and Kakashi flinched inwardly as he remembered he had to work with that she-devil soon enough.

"It's bad enough that sensei went and married that crazy noble" Kakashi grumbled. He paid for his order, and then turned to leave before noticing the smirk on Kurenai's face. "What's that look for Kurenai?" She just shook her head, and smiled slightly.

"You really are going to have your hands full you know, with Naruto growing up with the bad habits of Minato, Anko, and Kushina." Kurenai's comment shook him for a moment, but Kakashi quickly brushed it off.

"It's not like they didn't have good habits as well. Besides, from what I've seen of Naruto so far, he has a bit of humility that all three of those characters lack in some respects." Asuma nodded in agreement to Kakashi, moving to pay his own bill. "Well, I'll see you at the training ground Asuma. Make sure not to take too long with getting your team there."

"Not like I'll be winning the jonin race anyways, but I'll still beat my group to the training ground. Especially if Ino can't get those two knuckleheads kicked into gear…" Kurenai chuckled and patted him good naturedly on the shoulder.

"Well, I'll see you both later then. I've got to go meet up with my team. Asuma, take care, alright?" Both of them nodded, and Kakashi pulled out a single kunai from under his robes.

"Meet you there Asuma." In a puff of smoke, the sharingan ninja disappeared from sight. The next instant, Kakashi stood overlooking the still torn up training ground.

"We really did do a number on this place, huh?" Kakashi whistled in admiration at the destructive power of his group. "Guess they should be about a minute out or so…from what I saw when they left, Naruto released a pressure seal, Sasuke body flickered, and Sakura used a soldier pill." Kakashi made a slight moue of dissatisfaction; while all three were good techniques, it was obvious that they had been separately developed so as to retain some advantage over one another. "I hope there is not too much of a competition rivalry with this group. Lord knows if they get really competitive they'll be fighting against Guy's group in no time." Kakashi sighed slightly, unnerved by the thought of seeing more of his 'eternal rival'.

"Well, might as well let them have some experience in combat; lord knows, Minato hasn't really been pushing Naruto to get into too many sparring matches lately." Kakashi looked up as Anko Namikaze sauntered into the clearing. Trailing behind her were Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, both looking fairly well, if slightly edgy for some reason. "He has however been pushing him to develop in sealing techniques, so I'm willing to bet that your little spar against his team went quite well?" Kakashi smirked, and pulled out the small silencing seal that Naruto had created, holding it out for Anko to see.

"They all did a great job during the fight, though none of them managed to actually get the bells from me. Maybe after some work over the next few weeks they'll be more than ready to go." Anko gave out a low whistle as she looked over the sealing diagram, her eyebrows going up just the tiniest bits.

"That's the same seal that Minato started passing out to the Karaoke and Love Hotels in the city. Must have got this from his old man recently…That was probably before the latest fight at the house." Kakashi blinked twice at this, turning to give Anko a questioning look. Sighing, Anko folded the piece of paper up and placed it in her pocket. "Naruto and Minato were arguing again about the duties of one who practices sealing arts, Naruto saying that they should not be used as a weapon. Minato obviously disagreed. I swear, for being so skilled at their craft, the two of them act like such brats sometimes." An annoyed look flitting across the woman's face, she idly drew a kunai and began to balance it on one finger.

"You and Naruto still act thick as thieves though from what I've heard." Kakashi smiled as Anko nodded, her concentration becoming focused on the single tool that was now several inches above her hand. Chakra floated it away from her body, and it wavered for a moment in the slight breeze of the afternoon. "How long has he been away from the house for this time?"

Cursing as a sudden gust knocked the kunai off of her pillar of chakra, Anko caught the weapon and turned to give the older jounin a sour look. "About four, maybe five days…Naruto spent the first couple with the Uchiha, then one with the Haruno's, and one with the Nara's. I swear, that boy and his father have more issues to work out than anyone else I know." Kakashi chuckled lightly, remembering his days as a genin and how he and his dad were when it came to father-son interactions.

"So Hatake-san, I take it Sasuke made a good showing in his exam?" Kakashi turned to address the two Uchiha, who up to now had been securing gear and changing into shinobi training garb.

"Yes, he did quite well. I even had to switch out with a water clone after a while, he really was a bit of a problem. He has mastered that Blaze Sword technique of yours quite well, Fugaku." The older man warmed at this, beaming with a bit of fatherly pride. "He still has a few issues to work on with his anger control though; I managed to rile him during the fight, and despite having his sharingan active, he missed the switch with my water clones." Fugaku shook his head ruefully at this, and Mikoto chuckled lightly.

"Still, from the looks of this training ground, your team got off to a rather powerful start." The mirth was still clear in Mikoto's voice as she looked over the thoroughly trashed training ground. "I'm guessing the first couple of D-rank missions will be cleaning up this area." Kakashi nodded, then turned suddenly towards the direction of the city. "Seems our students have arrived at last" Mikoto said, turning to look at the approaching group. Naruto and Sasuke were neck in neck, running at a dead sprint to reach the training grounds. Sakura for her part was a step or two behind, but seemed to be throwing something. As it landed, a large smoke bomb went off, covering the two racing boys in smoke, light, and sound. The adults all looked up at this, and were surprised when the pink haired girl, suddenly emerged from the smoke, dragging the two knocked out boys with her.

"Nice work!" Anko crowed. "What did you hit 'em with?" The older woman felt herself looking forward to training this kid. Any female that could keep up with two boys at genin age was one she definitely wanted to train.

"It was a sensory overload smoke bomb, specialty of mine that Naruto helped me come up with." Sakura gave a slight victory smirk, even as she pulled smelling salts from her bag to help her two teammates recover. "Naruto has a really sensitive nose, so it gives off a powerful and pungent smell, and Sasuke's sharingan is very sensitive to light, so I overload that sense as well. Combined with a loud bang, and my own medical ninjutsu to deaden my own senses temporarily, and it works wonders against these two knuckleheads." Naruto shook his head, pushing the smelling salts out from under his nose.

"Why did I ever help you with that damned thing anyways!" Naruto growled, pulling himself to his feet. Catching the irked look of Anko out of the corner of his eyes, Naruto smiled ruefully, hoping she wasn't too mad about his swearing. Luckily for him, Sasuke came to at about this time, distracting the others for a moment.

"Shit, Sakura, have you been adding more gunpowder to that smoke bomb recently? That's starting to become less of a smoke bomb, and more of a really bad smelling grenade." Sasuke rubbed his eyes to clear them, only to come face to face with a scowling Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha.

'Busted.' Sakura felt bad for the boys, but they deserved the parental glare for their verbal slip ups. Kakashi, sensing the changing mood, decided to interrupt and get everyone's attention with his panted eye-smile technique.

"GREAT JOB SAKURA-CHAN! Well, why don't we get the schedule worked out for the next couple weeks?" A few stray hearts seemed to appear behind the white haired jonin, as his eye's strained to convey the smile that his mask hid. Luckily, the diffusive power of the eye smile technique managed to get the attention shifted back to the lesson for the time being.

"Alright, as the adults are already aware of this information, please bear with me as I explain the training schedule for the next eight weeks or so. Every day, there will be full on spars with no move restrictions, beyond deadly force, between teammates, from six to nine hundred. Following this, there will be a break. On weekends, we will take missions from this point on, till lunch, stop for lunch, and then take more missions until the early evening. On weekdays, we will continue after nine hundred to have chakra training till lunch time. This will then proceed from thirteen hundred to sixteen hundred for personal training work. From seventeen hundred to twenty hundred hours, there will be joint training exercises with the team that will accompany us on our first extended mission." As Kakashi looked out over the group, he was impressed to see all the kids nodding, and smiling slightly. "Any questions?"

A long moment stretched on, and the three kids looked between themselves and shrugged. "No, I guess not. Sounds like we'll be working pretty hard though." Naruto spoke up for the group, and the other two nodded absent mindedly. "Still, I don't think that it's anything we can't handle." Kakashi gave the boy an eye-smile and turned to the other adults.

"Well, in that case, we will proceed to some of the personal training right away. Anko, you will be working with Sakura, Sasuke you will be working with your parents, and Naruto, you will be paired with me for the afternoon. After your training is done, you are free to go home and get ready for the joint training exercises this evening." Sakura stood and walked over to the purple haired woman. Sasuke had made his way over to his folks, and Naruto seemed to be obediently following Kakashi away from the field.

"So, is it true that you have pictures of Naruto as a little kid?" Naruto felt his spine tingle, as he turned to look over his shoulder at Anko and Sakura. Sasuke chuckled off to the side, snickering at his friends obvious discomfort. "Because I've heard a lot about him having this stuffed toad toy as a kid, and Sasuke and I have never seen it…"

"I have just the picture you want, and even have one of Sasuke with a bird plushy as well." It was Sasuke's turn to cringe, even as his parents smiled ruefully at the kid. Kakashi merely pulled Naruto along with him as they walked around some of the destroyed landscape surrounding them.

xXxXxXx

Minato stared out over the village, taking a break from his paper work to idly muse about the team placements he had selected. It had taken a lot of arguing over which jonin to place with which team, but it had finally worked out. The only one that had been easy for him to pick was the placement of Kakashi. All the others had been ridiculously hard to get council approval for.

Sighing, Minato thought back to his first team with Kakashi, and how much work it had taken to get the council to approve the Sandaime's decision even then. "We were a bit of an odd-ball team though; a disgraced Uchiha, a disgraced ninja family scion, and a Inuzuka who had lost her only nin-dog. Yeah, quite the team I picked back then, but I could see that the three of them needed each other in order to function properly together." Biting back the pain of bitter memories, Minato hoped that Kakashi's new team would stay far from the mold that the Hokage's group had cast.

'Still, the other teams are at least slightly different from what was expected. Asuma should hopefully be able to draw out the hunter and fighter instincts in his group, and Kurenai, though young, will be ideally suited to help the retrieval and capture squad.' Turning around to pick up the papers on his desk, Minato found a small three pronged kunai buried within his piles of paperwork. "Oops, I really have to be careful with where I leave these things lying around." Glad that no one was there to see his mistake, Minato reached down and pocketed the signature weapon. As he did, he felt the pull and rush of memories overtake him.

_The feeling of enemies rushing at him, his blade plunging into the nearest one before he disappeared again, and the raw sounds of battle sank into Minato's heart. The fifty men he faced were as nothing before him, the slight drain of chakra from teleporting a small annoyance in the back of his mind. He watched absently as his hands felled first five, then ten, then twenty enemies, and still there were twice as many remaining. Minato felt himself growing frustrated but did not falter. Each jump gave him only a moment to kill a foe, look for the next target, and leap again; the order was random, only going for the most off-guard, or farthest away when he deemed them a necessary kill. At last, the last enemy had fallen, but Minato felt the familiar tug from a far off seal. Not hesitating for an instant, he found himself facing yet more Iwa ninja, his eyes cold as he systematically slaughtered them without so much as a pause. Only when the small group of enemies had been finished off did he turn to see two of his students, Rin working hard on a medical jutsu for Kakashi while the boy lay asleep, blood seeping from a wound in his side. Minato took note of his closed eyes, and the scar that marred his left eye. Feeling his nerves calm, Minato glanced around for the missing third teammate. Not seeing him anywhere, Minato began to get a rather distressing feeling. "Rin, where is Obito?" the girl shook her head, silently focused on Kakashi, and Minato clenched his fists in anger. Minato knew just from that small action of the girl; Obito, his favorite student, had died in combat. _

_ The funeral had to wait until after the bridge was destroyed. The slaughter at the front lines, Minato's own handiwork, kept the earth forces busy for several days; over two hundred men fell by his hand in the span of time it took Kakashi and Rin to destroy the bridge. None of it mattered at the time. Minato had felt part of his soul die along with Obito, especially after Rin filled him in on what had happened. Regardless, the kunai that Kakashi had thrown remained in Minato's grip for the entire time he was on the battlefield against Iwa. Obito's sacrifice, as Minato thought of it, had killed more enemy ninja than any other weapon during the span of the war. _

As Minato lifted the pronged kunai, he shuddered to force the memories back behind their closed door. The sights of slaughter plagued the man, making him glad for once of the monotony of paperwork. As he sighed, controlling himself, he noticed the paper the kunai had been resting on. It was a letter of hopeful association, asking if Iwa could participate in the upcoming Chunin Exams. Minato felt himself bite his tongue slightly, holding himself back from slashing the offending piece of paper. As he did, he felt his hand come to rest on the hilt of the small sword that he carried at his waist now. The feeling of anger drained from him, sinking into the blade, waiting to return to him at a moment's notice.

"Maybe I'll let the council decide on this issue. Shikaku probably has a few things he wants to say about the team placements as well."

xXxXxXx

"So, about those pictures you said you had?" Anko chuckled lightly as the young girl worked through the basic warm-up she had assigned. "What will I have to do to earn those?" Anko smirked, and pulled out a plastic bag of feathers from her pouch. Smirking at the girls confused look, the older jonin approached her, holding the bag out for the girl to inspect.

"I assume that while you were at the academy, they taught you the leaf balancing trick?" At Sakura's nod, the older ninja smiled. "Well, if you want to hear those photos, you must complete the feather training by the end of the week. We will spend half our time on this training, and the other half on learning some advanced chakra manipulation techniques." Sakura frowned up at the older woman, not understanding the assignment.

"The leaf training is really easy though, so even if they are feathers, they shouldn't blow away too easily…" Anko merely laughed at the younger girl before proffering the bag once more to the girl.

"The training isn't to keep one feather in place Sakura. It's to keep all of them in place. While learning the Hebi style by sparring against me." Sakura's eyebrows shot up; that was way more difficult than she had ever expected. "Oh, and for each feather you lose, that's one sit up, one push up, and one squat jump." With that, Anko took the bag and dumped it over the thoroughly shocked genin's head. Noting with a small bit of pride the number of feathers that stuck to the girl, Anko gave the best sadistic grin she could manage. "Now, little chicken, run!" Sakura was gone in a blink, and Anko had to smile at the kid. "That's what I'm talking about! Maybe I will like this whole training gig after all!"

'Naruto's has to have the most insane step-mom ever!' Sakura screamed in her head as she quickly began to block, counter and dodge strike after strike of Anko's. Before long, the girl switched with a substitution jutsu, losing a large number of feathers in the process.

"Ooh, someone is going to be hurting tonight!" Anko crooned, chasing after the girl. "I hope you're ready for 361 push ups, sit ups, and squat jumps, because they are a coming!" Sakura winced as she felt a punch connect knocking her to the ground. The woman moved as if there were no bones in her body, and obviously was not restraining herself in her attacks. "Alright kid, how many feathers have you got left?" Sakura paused for a second, and counted. Thankfully she had sixty four left on her body. Anko nodded at this, a slight grin splitting her face. The grin, when combined with her trench coat and mesh outfit, made a terribly horrifying image to the young genin. "Good news is that you have control over your sixty four major tenketsu. Bad news is, I won't be satisfied until you can control all of them. So, as a special perk, you get to do three hundred of those lovely exercises I left for you, while keeping as many of the feathers on as possible. Also, I'll go over explaining some of the basics of the Hebi style while you do." A flick of her wrist, and the bag of feathers refilled. "Now, get to pushing missy…"

Sakura felt her muscles scream in protest, but began the workout anyways. Besides, five minutes of fighting and thirty minutes of muscular torture did not seem that bad of a way to start the training. "When you're done, I think we'll do two more rounds, just to round out the day." Sakura felt her face begin to falter. "You're a medical type right? Good, then I don't have to worry about healing your muscles too, you'll take care of that from now on." Sakura felt her abs already start to protest as she pushed herself through the sets. "Come on, pay attention her chicken. You've got a long way to go if you want those photos." Sakura forced herself to watch as the sadistic lady began the explanation of the Hebi style.

xXxXxXx

"Well, I'm sure you have a couple questions about what kind of training I have in mind for you." Naruto just turned a questioning glance at the older man, who sighed, and shrugged his shoulders. "You can drop the tough guy act around me Naruto, I know that you're only acting this way since you don't remember me much." The kid unfolded his arms slightly, the bandoliers that held his many destructive weapons jostling a little as he did. "There, that's a little better right?" The eye-smile was out, and Kakashi warmed a little inwardly as he noticed the hard set face across from him begin to sport a slight smirk, hands tucked into his pockets and his hair hidden by the bandana.

"I'm pretty sure I know what the training is going to be Kakashi-sensei. You used shadow clones in our fight earlier, and seemed surprised by the number I was sporting. That would suggest that you want to use the shadow clone technique training, right?" Kakashi eye-smiled at the kid again; he really was on top of his game.

"That's right, but as your father probably told you, until your brain begins completing its complexity network, we have to limit the number we can use in this way to around five or so." Naruto nodded, and in an instant there were five dopplegangers in front of him. "You will have one focus on the sealing scrolls I present him to learn from, and another will focus on learning the wind element techniques. A third will be going over kendo, and some basic kendo strikes and forms, and the fourth will work on polishing various ninjutsu techniques. The real you will be working with me to improve your taijutsu. Understood?" All five of the copies nodded, and then broke off to begin working on various instructions. Kakashi formed two of his own dopplegangers, and tossed the sealing and kendo one their scrolls to work from. "Every forty minutes or so, we will take a twenty minute break for you to disperse, absorb, and categorize the various information that the clones will give you. Then, we get right back to it."

"Sounds good to me. But, I should warn you, my clones can get a little bit lippy. I apologize in advance if they say anything that will upset your own clones." Kakashi nodded, chuckling slightly.

"Everyone's shadow clones have a bit more of the base personality brought out in them. Mine are very serious, and follow the rules to the letter, but they won't harm any of my students. It shouldn't be too much of a problem." Naruto nodded and left to a chorus of 'Good luck, Boss' as he followed the older warrior away from his group.

"Now, I'm going to be working on the tiger claw style of martial arts. I'm sure you're at least slightly familiar with this one, as I know you have trained some with Asuma in the past." At a nod, Kakashi gave an eye-smile before disappearing from sight. Naruto barely had time to turn and block the incoming high kick attack before jumping back and away.

"What the hell was that all about?" Naruto cried out, giving his teacher a vehement glare.

"Sorry, I only do live demonstrations. I assume by now that you have the basics of the form down, and will allow you only to use the Tiger Claw style while fighting me. After each forty minute bout, I'll give some critiques and then we'll spend the next session working out some kinks in your forms." Kakashi resettled his stance, and fixed the young man with his friendliest smile. "Now, if you're ready we will continue." Naruto paled slightly; this was going to be a long day.

xXxXxXx

"It's been such a long time since we had a really good spar Sasuke. You have been spending the last few years spending most of your time practicing with Sakura and Naruto." Sasuke jumped to the side as a blazing sword slashed through the tree branch he had just been on. Turning, the boy twisted to the side as his mom gouged out the space with her tigers claw that he had occupied only a second earlier.

"Yeah, well, I wanted to have a chance to build up some skills to surprise you with." Fugaku and Mikoto both smirked, feeling the tug of the many sharingan genjutsu dotting the boys clothing. "Especially since I knew they were all tricks that you and mom had down a while ago." The boy body flickered behind the two of them, and Fugaku was surprised again by his son's alacrity of movement.

"Still, you should have started sparring with us more before we became your tutors. There are a number of things that your mother and I wanted to teach you." Fugaku expertly parried the sword slash, and delivered a brutal kick to Sasuke's ribs. Not wasting a single moment, Mikoto swept in and placed her lightning claw at her boys throat, who just as she arrived switched with a log. She smirked as she smashed through the substitution, turning her own spinning eyes to the forest around her.

"I've also been busy spending time with all of the new family members in the clan. It wouldn't do for the next clan head to not know all of the new kids coming from the marriages with lightning." Fugaku warmed with pride for his son, even as his eyes spotted him in the treeline, and he sent a number of explosive kunai racing towards the boy. Mikoto for her part kept her eyes on him as her only son flashed from the trees to land on the ground, dodging the deadly explosion. As soon as he landed though, he found her claws at his throat, and this time without a chance to get away.

"That was pretty good, Sasuke. I think that was almost ten minutes you had us on the run there. You even managed to go on the offensive once or twice." Sasuke smiled and nodded at his mom, who lowered the deadly claw and pulled her son into a hug. "Now then, since we have the family spar out of the way, shall we get down to what your actual training will be?" Sasuke had a irked look on his face as he righted his ruffled hair, but nodded to his mother. Fugaku gave a rare smile for the boy, and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Well, I'm going to work on teaching you a number of new fire techniques, and your mother will be teaching you lightning based ones. After we get done with that, we'll cover advanced uses for the sharingan, and will begin teaching you more of the clan's interceptor style that you are so desirous to learn about." Sasuke smiled, but then frowned for a second.

"How am I going to be able to work with both of you at the same time?" Mikoto smiled at the boy and ruffled his hair.

"One shadow clone should do it, since you only have to work with two of us at the same time. You've picked that up from Naruto right?" Sasuke frowned further but nodded.

"Don't tell him though, okay? We both agreed that we weren't to steal each other's techniques when we trained together." Fugaku had his eyebrows shoot up, while Mikoto simply chuckled pleasantly.

'Those two really are good friends, aren't they? Well, I guess one little secret wouldn't hurt too much.' Nodding to her son, Mikoto smiled at her husband out of the corners of her eyes. "We won't let him know, alright Sasuke?" Sasuke smiled a bit, and formed a quick shadow clone. "Now then, let's get down to learning about the lightning element. Your first job, is to make a spark jump between these two points of metal." Sasuke formed his grip around the two prongs of steel, and began to focus his thoughts on catching the right spark.

xXxXxXx

A man in a long trench coat, with red clouds covering its surface, stared down at the dead form of Hanzo the Salamander. In his hand, he held two long, sharp pieces of metal; the implement that had finally allowed him to kill the great warrior. Though looking at the old man, Nagato realized that this figure was far past his prime of life. "You just wouldn't quit, until we had to kill you, would you Hanzo?"

Crouching, the older form of a spiky orange haired man lifted the body, and led it back towards a containment area. Without a single glance back at the Ame ninja's room, the man caused gravity to crush the single standing tower. Walking out into the fresh air, Nagato smiled as he saw the destruction, the welcoming of pain to those that had resisted in this final struggle.

The tower was littered in corpses, and Nagato smiled as he caused the rain to begin to fall, and to darken the sky. As he walked away from the once great tower, it crumbled beneath its own weight, damaged by the great amount of attacks that it had weathered that night. Nagato looked out and saw his five other forms, and saw through their eyes the destruction that had been wrought. They had, in a single night, killed Hanzo and destroyed his entire palace. The extermination had carried over to his diplomats and contacts, and Nagato was truly overjoyed as he watched the world around him crumble to ash. It would take time, but the world would begin to know his pain.

xXxXxXx

"Man, my body is killing me!" Sakura protested, falling onto the ground next to Naruto. Naruto seemed to be lost in thought, a scroll opened in his hand and pouring over a new sealing technique that Kakashi had handed him. "Hello, earth to Naruto! We don't have to start training again for another couple of minutes. Put that thing down and talk to me for a second." The blonde looked up from his scroll sheepishly and turned to his friend with a smile on his face.

"Sorry Sakura, Kakashi gave me some really interesting things to read today. How was training with my step-mom?" Sakura sighed as Naruto rolled up his reading.

'Honestly, he seems like he's in a completely different world when he's studying sealing. I really don't get him some times.' The girl shook off the feeling of being put out, and held up a bag of feathers. "You see these feathers? These things are my new instrument of torture…" Naruto looked at her oddly, asking her to continue. "Your step-mom decided that in order to keep up with you two, I will need not just to be physically strong, but also have chakra control as good as a Hyuuga." Sakura took the bag and shook it over her head, and was slightly disappointed at the number that still managed to float to the ground. "Gah, I'm never going to be able to hold a feather on every damned tenketsu!" Turning to see her friends reaction, she noticed the fist that Naruto had stuffed in his mouth to stop from laughing. "SHUT UP!"

Naruto ducked under the enraged girls swing at him, and busted out laughing, unable to hold it in any longer.

"You look like a chicken, Sakura!" The boy's laughter carried across the clearing and the enraged kunoichi began chasing after him, leaving a trail of feathers behind her as she did. It was to this sight that Sasuke Uchiha walked onto, and he too could not keep a chuckle from escaping his lips.

"Not that I don't enjoy the comedy routine, but we should probably shape up, our joint team exercises start soon, don't they?" Sakura gave up chasing Naruto, and sighed as the blonde bounded up to join Sasuke.

"Thanks, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't saved me from that crazy hen…" Sasuke smirked and shook his head.

"You two really are too much sometimes. Anyways, my folks let slip who we'll be training with." Sasuke loved the reaction that the two gave him at that, their heads snapping around to stare at him. He noticed with some minor mirth that the feathers on Sakura were standing all the way up at this announcement. "I'll let you know when Sakura stops pretending to be farm fowl." The girl shot him an aggravated look, and the feathers fell to the ground in an instant.

"Just spill it, alright duck butt?" Sakura yelled, gathering up her 'training equipment'. Sasuke couldn't help letting another chuckle slip, but before he could say anything, he felt the approaching group.

"Sorry, looks like they beat me to telling you. Anyways, we get to work with this lot over the next few weeks." Sasuke thumbed behind him as Kiba Inuzuka raced over the small hill. He had a grey leather coat on, with fur on the inside, and standard issue shinobi pants and sandals. He also had a small white dog riding in the front of his shirt, and his brown hair spiked and poofed around his face, a single headband adorning his forehead. Hinata Hyuuga was with him, wearing a simple black shirt with mesh underneath, and basic shinobi pants. Her hair was cut short for a girl, with a single long strand of the silky black hair framing either side of her face. Shino was the last to arrive, wearing an overly large trench coat, and sunglasses, a blue pair of shinobi pants setting him off slightly from his teammates.

"So, looks like we all beat our teachers here!" Kiba called out, running up to join Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto and Kiba grinned at each other, while the Uchiha gave him a friendly smirk. "Not surprising though, our teacher is kind of a lazy bum." Kiba jumped back slightly when a trench knife embedded into the dirt in front of him.

"Who are you calling a lazy bum?" A tall man with side burns and wearing the standard shinobi garb and Jonin flak jacket jumped down from the trees. He had a single cigarette in his mouth, already lit and burning through. "Jeez, you show up five minutes late for one meeting, and they are already lumping me in with Kakashi."

"Asuma, good to see you!" Asuma turned toward Naruto and shot him a grin.

"Good to see you too, runt! How are those trench knives working out for you, you get the hang of them yet?" Naruto shook his head and Asuma chuckled slightly. "Don't worry, it's probably going to be a while before you get your chakra control good enough to use with those just yet." Naruto chuckled slightly, and then jumped as Kakashi and Anko landed in the clearing.

"Well, good to see that you are all here on time. Now, for the evenings, we will be going through some basic drills and practices that these two teams will have to work on for the next month or so. During these sessions, one of us Jonin will play the bad guy, and the other two will lead the respective squads of genin. Since it was my idea for these joint sessions, why don't I go first tonight?" Kakashi stepped in front of the group and looked them all over.

"The goal of these training sessions will be for the genin to find and hunt down the missing jonin, the jonin to get to the know the teams and their abilities better, and the off jonin to practice fighting against a larger, but ultimately less deadly opponent." The groups nodded, obviously understanding what he was saying. "In that regards, if you are not the jonin that is being hunted, you are limited to only hand to hand and C-Rank techniques. Even if you are the jonin being hunted, nothing above B-Rank. Nothing too deadly, understand?" The last part seemed to be directed more towards Anko, who huffed and turned away from the man slightly.

"You're such a spoil sport Kakashi. I have Naruto dodge A-Ranks from time to time, I know his friends will be able to keep up…" Kakashi shook his head at the woman. Honestly, she was completely bat-shit, he was sure of it.

"Hey, that's only when I've been mouthing off!" Naruto called out and Anko turned and pinned him with her best parental glare.

"Like you're doing now, runt?" Naruto swallowed a bit at this, and Kiba mouthed 'Nice Job' to him, as he shrank back into the group.

"Well, now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, I'll take a couple moments to get a head start, and then we'll begin our session for the night." With that, Kakashi disappeared into the surrounding trees, and started moving as fast as he could.

xXxXxXx

BACK AFTER A LONG HIATUS! May be a while before I can post again, but I wanted to get this done and out there for the loving masses. Sorry for the wait, was working on some graduate school stuff and getting my own plot and story sorted out. Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope to hear from you all soon! As always, Read and Review!


	3. Chapter 3

RAPID FAST POSTING! DON'T OWN ANYTHING! SPECIAL EDITION GO!

xXxXxXx

"_Do you think he's found out about our hiding spot?" Naruto peered around Sasuke's shoulder, trying to get a better view. It was a stupid idea, a really, really, stupid idea, but the two twelve year old boys couldn't help themselves. There was just something about this location in the Konoha trees that afforded a Shinobi, with a spyglass or Sharingan, the perfect view of the women's bathing house. Unfortunately, at the moment, there was a rather large, white haired male, giggling as he sat in THEIR spot. _

_ "I don't think so, he seems to be using it the same way we were yesterday…"Sasuke trailed off in thought, trying to think of how to oust the mysterious interloper. _

_ "Man, if Sakura-san finds out what we are doing, we are both so dead!" Naruto for his part was doing his best to blend back into the street scenery. Pulling out a sealing scroll, the boy buried his face in it, hoping to disguise himself from fellow passerby. _

_ "Naruto, don't be an idiot. Sakura went to the capital with her dad on a merchant trip, remember." Sasuke growled in frustration; from the kunai and scroll pouches he could see on the old man, he was a ninja at least. And ones that were that old and still spying on young women only got to do so by being able to avoid their wrath. Which meant this bastard was at least fairly quick on his feet. _

_ "Yeah, but she gets back today. And if she finds out what we've been doing, even if this is our last year in the academy together, she'll kill us." Naruto shuddered as he thought of that, cringing from the imaginary beating. A sudden smell hit his nose though, and he turned to see his step-mom sauntering out of a dango shop with her namesake food in hand. "Sasuke, I just got the perfect idea to get back at the old geezer…" Sasuke turned, and upon spotting Anko Namikaze, smiled a wicked grin in agreement. _

_ "Do it." The Uchiha's words were hardly needed as Naruto stuffed the scroll away and performed a flawless transformation of the average civilian woman. Walking up to his step-mom with the body signals of someone highly annoyed and distressed, Naruto's transformed girl approached, wringing her hands. _

_ "Ah Namikaze-sama, thank goodness." Naruto inwardly smirked at the aggravated expression that drew from Anko. 'She hates being called that, but has to put up with it for dad…' "There is a very strange man in that tree up there. He seems to have white hair and a spyglass, and I swear I heard giggling from him." This drew Anko out of her enraged state and made her more speculative for a moment. 'Gotcha.' "He even has a notepad out and seems to be drawing something. I think he's looking in the direction of the bathhouse too!" That did it, the woman was well and truly pissed. _

_ "Thank you for informing me, ma'am. I'll see to this little discretion at once." In an instant, Anko was in the nearby tree, and there came several shouts and cries from it, the most prominent being 'MY RESEARCH!' followed quickly by 'Oh GOD, WHY IN THE BALLS?' Naruto felt his transformation fade from laughing, and he turned to see Sasuke sneak out of his hiding spot in the nearby alley. Naruto however stopped laughing when his step-mom suddenly appeared in front of him, followed shortly by his Uncle Jiraiya. "Naruto, would you care to explain why your Uncle saw, and I quote, 'Two young boys, one with red eyes and the other with seal-enhanced binoculars using this same lookout for youthful study themselves the other day.'? I'm curious as to what other boy your age has sealing talent like that…" _

_ Naruto felt the trap close in around him, and sent a look towards his Uncle, who gave a mischievous grin back of his own. 'That dirty double crosser ratted me out! How dare he! I thought he said we were fellow perverts when he gave me that spyglass!' Before he was too far lost though, Sasuke jumped in to the rescue. _

_ "Naruto was helping me refine my scoping ability with the Sharingan the other day. We were looking to see if we could spot Sakura's family returning home from the west gate." 'The hot springs are near the west gate, so maybe she'll fall for that one' Sasuke grimaced inwardly, knowing that if she didn't, he had just tossed his fate in with Naruto. _

_ "Oh, Haruno-san was supposed to return yesterday huh? That's odd, I could have sworn I reminded Naruto that she was delayed, and so would be returning today instead." 'We are both so totally had' The two boys turned to each other and Naruto put up his embarrassed face that meant they should just accept their fate lying down. _

_ "Yeah, but this is Naruto, Anko-chan. He probably forget and came back today when the two couldn't spot her, right?" Naruto and Sasuke kept their face passive as they turned to look at Jiraiya. Both nodded their heads quickly, and Anko looked from one guilty party to the next. Before long, she turned around and sighed, heading back towards the village. _

_ "If I hear anyone goes back up there before I have Jiraiya place a pervert warning seal on that area, all three of you will be castrated. I don't care what Fugaku or Mikoto thinks, I will do that to an Uchiha." All three men flinched in fear, but relaxed once the kunoichi was out of sight. _

_ "Thanks for the save, Uncle Jiraiya." The old man sighed, and shook his head. _

_ "While I understand your desire to get an old man out of your research spot, next time remember that there are better tactics than involving Anko. Ever since she started dating your dad, the lady has been on a war crime to punish and prevent perverts. I swear, if I didn't know how to undo and reapply your dad's seals, Konoha would be a closed town to me at this point, at least for the free material." Naruto and Sasuke both shook their heads, Naruto turning to give his uncle a hopeful glance. _

_ "But you'll teach me how to do that one day too, right?" Jiraiya chuckled and ruffled the kids head. _

_ "I think that it will be a learning lesson for you to figure out how to get around that seal in particular. Think of it as a challenge, so you'll know when you're ready to start using some of the combat seals." Naruto shot the old man a baleful glare. _

_ "You're just mad, so you won't teach me, is that it?" Jiraiya chuckled, and shot the kid his biggest grin yet. _

_ "Yeah, pretty much." And with that, the Sannin disappeared off into the village. "One day, I'll teach you how to be a super-pervert though, just you wait my boy!"_

_ A small breeze blew through the clearing before Sasuke turned to his friend. "Your family is very strange, you know that, right?" Naruto nodded dimly once before shoving his hands in his pocket. _

_ "Nothing to do now until Anko gets back." Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and pulled out a mirror. "Wanna see if we can get the reflections to work right?" Naruto shrugged in agreement, and the two raced off to attempt more research. _

xXxXxXx

"Any sight of the bastard?" Naruto's voice was very annoyed, and it threw off the concentration of Hinata Hyuuga. His voice was also very close by to her ear, and this was not helping the girl's cool, as she teetered on the branch of a thirty foot tree. 'Seriously, does he even get how attractive he can be at times?' Hinata found her thoughts drifting to the black outfit, and the rebel image he cut, and she had to jerk herself back into focus.

"Nothing yet, lots of water and earth clones running around, but the real one is not appearing." Naruto shook his head and turned to Kiba and Shino.

"Any progress on the scent trail, or on the area location yet?" Both boys shook their heads and Naruto pounded the tree in frustration. Below them, Sasuke and Sakura stood on guard, waiting and listening for approaching sounds of an enemy. The other two jonin were sharpening their knives, hoping to get an actual spar underway. Though they couldn't help the genin, it was always fun to watch, and suggest improvements.

"Nothing yet, there seems to be something he's done to hide his scent in among the clones. Possibly a tracer pack, something that would have picked up his scent for a long time and allowed him to rub it on each of the clones he's created." Shino nodded in agreement with the dog user, and Naruto had to resist a shudder as a multitude of bugs crawled back into the boys arms.

"We need a different approach I think. Kiba, Shino, switch out with Sasuke and bring him up here. We're going to do a different kind of reconnaissance I think." Both boys puzzled at the blonde, but shrugged and jumped to the ground. Due to the number of slightly exhaustive pranks the boy had pulled, they knew he made a decent team leader when it came to executing a plan.

Sasuke jumped a bit when the other two landed, but nodded his ascent to them. When they motioned for him to join the group up top, he made a hand gesture to Sakura who nodded in confirmation. The green clad kunoichi nodded to them, and motioned them into a triangle formation. 'It's so weird how those three hardly need to even speak at all when they work together' thought Kiba, settling Akamaru onto the ground next to him as he took up sentry position.

When Sasuke reached the top of the tree, Naruto turned and handed him a pair of worn binoculars, causing a grin to spread on the Uchiha's face. "Alright Hinata, Sasuke is going to use his Sharingan and my sight enhanced binoculars to spot the clones with you. Whenever you make one that is an elemental clone, let him know. I'll draw up a map that can keep track of them, that way we can narrow down where the real target is." Hinata nodded at the boy, and motioned Sasuke over towards her. In a few moments, they had narrowed down the search area and quickly figured out where the jonin was hiding.

Not wasting any time, Naruto jumped down to the forest floor, the others following quickly behind him. "Alright, we've figured out where Kakashi is at, and it looks like he's placed himself inside two concentric rings of clones. If we're going to make sure that they don't alert him to our arrival, we need to move in as stealthy a way as possible. Since he can see us coming if we go by air, we're going to have to tunnel underground. Anyone good at the Earth Passageway Technique?" Anko surprised Naruto by raising her hand.

"Yeah, I can handle that part of the job for you; but remember, someone in this group is going to have to pick up that trick before long." The kids nodded to the purple haired adult, and gestured for her to begin. "Sorry if it's a bit rusty, but with as deep as I can get us, I'm sure old one eye won't pick up on it. I'll need that map Naruto, I assume you already set it up to be self-updating?" Naruto nodded and handed over the drawing. Asuma smirked at the group of kids. At this rate, the crew really would be ready in another week or two. Still, it had taken them a whole month just to be able to face Asuma in a six on one fight.

'But they are still fresh genin. Can't expect too much of them, even if Team 7 is the strike force this year. I know that Gai's Team took about twice as long to face up to their first jonin, but it was Ebisu, so it probably doesn't count as much.' Taking a drag on his cigarette, he followed the group into the underground tunnel. The tunnel was list with the whisper glow of flame chakra, resting in the palms of both Sasuke and Hinata. That the Hyuuga had an elemental affinity for fire was very odd; their clan usually only sported water or earth natures. Still, damned useful at a time like this.

"Alright, we've tried the head on approach with Kakashi before, and it hasn't worked, so we need to find something a bit more manageable this time." Sakura's comment got a nod from Naruto, who turned to get suggestions from Shino.

"You're pretty good at the long game strategies, Shino, what do you think would work best?" Shino stared at him for a moment, and bugs began to crawl out of his sleeves before laying in a patchwork on his chest.

"I think the best course of action would be to assemble a sealing barrier around the area of confrontation first. That will keep his numerous clones out of the way, so we have some time to stall." As he said this, Naruto and Sakura both had to fight from retching a bit as the bugs began to make an insect-drawing to depict the battle scenario. "After we have an established perimeter, we can attack in waves, two genin at a time. We should have some form of a chakra drainer in each group, along with a heavy hitting expert." Now on the side of the shirt, names began to appear, spelled out in insect forms. "We should have Naruto, who can use draining seals, work with Sasuke. Hinata and Kiba would be another good group, and Sakura and myself could form the third." Sakura turned with fear in her eyes, begging Naruto to save her from the bug boy.

"Sounds like a great plan to me Shino, but next time, leave the bugs out of it, ok? That was just plain creepy." Sakura let her head fall at her teammates statement, but turned back to the front when Anko announced she had gotten them as close as possible while still being undetected.

"Can you make a ring around this area, Anko? I think I'm going to use the shadow clones to establish the seal perimeter." Anko nodded at her son, and the others took up positions to head out of the tunnel. "Sakura, Shino, you two head out here and establish the third prong of the triangle formation. Sasuke and I, along with Hinata and Kiba will confirm that Kakashi is in the sealing area before activating the seal. At that point, Hinata and Kiba will move to the proper point on the triangle, and Sasuke and I will begin the attack." The group nodded at this, and moved to get into position. Sakura shot Naruto one last pleading look to reconsider, and Naruto, upon catching it, merely flashed her his best grin. 'Heheh, serves her right for earning those damned photos from Anko'.

"I'm sorry if my bugs disturbed you Haruno-san. I find that they can be very useful when detailing combat plans though; in the future I will remember not to do so in front of you. If you would like, I can also remove the tracking bug I have placed upon you." Sakura turned to look at the Aburame with a face of sheer disgust.

"YOU PLACED A BUG ON ME?" Sakura's voice was quickly covered by Shino's hand, urging her to be quiet.

"Please Haruno-san, the attack is about to start I believe. And yes, I placed a bug on you. I place a bug on everyone I meet." Sakura stared down at the hand covering her face, remembering how many bugs had been crawling out of that sleeve just moments before. "Now, I will remove my hand if you promise not to make any more loud noises before the assault starts." With a nod from the short haired pink girl, the boy removed his hand. She immediately took several calming breaths before turning an angry glare at the boy.

"Remove the bug you have on me, right now." Her voice, true to her word, was calm and even, belying none of her contained anger. Just at that point, a purple haze twenty feet tall erupted behind the two, signaling the establishment of the perimeter.

"That's the signal. We must begin the attack." Sakura tried to say something but found herself racing after the bug boy as they landed in the clearing. Kakashi was already engaged with Naruto and Sasuke, both of whom seemed to be doing their level best to attack the man with drawn blades. Kakashi had his sharingan out and blazing, moving expertly between the two genin blocking strike after strike. Several times, blasts of air came from Naruto's fists, and Sasuke would wing arcs of flames out at the man. Sakura was happy to note though that a few times Naruto managed to tag the man with his chakra seals, slipping the random tag in between slashes with his one handed long bladed manji-sai. The blade would whistle through the air, and Kakashi always made sure to turn to the side when that happened, the attack leaving a path of destruction after it that indicated a high pressure wind. 'Looks like Naruto finally got down the wind blade and great breakthrough techniques. That, with gale palms and managing to apply seals via hand touch, and he's gotten a lot more deadly really quickly.'

Sasuke for his part had a two handed grip on his katana, and from time to time his slash would cross Naruto's and there would be sudden gouts of flame. Still, Sakura could see that after only a few seconds, the two boys were beginning to slow. The fight was having to take place with all of the genin using chakra to greatly enhance their movement speed, allowing for short intervals of jonin-esque combat. In order to create an opening, Sakura watched with a knowing smirk as Sasuke and Naruto unleashed a huge bullet of wind and fire chakra, the ensuing conflagration covering the sharingan ninja.

As always though, a barrier of water surrounded the man, cutting the former ninja off in their advance. Before the shield could fully drop, two Kiba's and Hinata appeared suddenly, pushing back the older ninja as the former fighters retreated. Judging from what she'd seen, they each would get about a one to two minute fight time, with about four minutes of break. 'Great, and here we were hoping that making that many clones tired him out. He probably had those prepped over the last couple days.' Sakura flexed her arms, feeling all of her tenketsu light up at the sensation. As she watched, she began to pick up the tell-tale signs of adjusting to the battle pace from Kiba and Hinata, noticing moves starting to go off by just the slightest bit. Seeing that Kakashi was about to get enough time to form hand seals, the three man squad jumped back and away, unleashing a number of orange colored shuriken with lots of strange markings. This time a number of expertly thrown 'Naruto Specialty' explosion seals created the diversion necessary. The blast was easily as large as the combined jutsu from moments before, and Sakura felt the heat flash warm her face from over sixty feet back. 'Naruto has also been adding a lot more pep to those lately too…' Before Shino was fully ready, Sakura charged into the clearing, signaling for Kiba and Hinata to take a step back.

Kakashi turned to face his newest opponent, sweat already beading on his forehead. 'Looks like the group really wants to beat me today... Guess the offer of a day off if they win was just too much of an incentive.' Kakashi dodged as one of Sakura's kicks hit the ground next to him, watching in slight terror at the number of spider web cracks that had begun to spiral away from the impact. 'And she has definitely gotten better at that.' Kakashi grimaced as the fighting with Sakura took him entirely off-guard every time. 'Anko had to teach her the Hebi-style, the one style meant to defeat both the Sharingan and the Byakugan, to a girl with anger issues and perfect chakra control.' Kakashi winced as he felt the first connection of kikaichu with his body, hating the biting feeling that crept over his body. Between the seals Naruto had placed, slight draining seals over time that took large amounts of chakra to remove, and the tenketsu sealing form Hinata, Kakashi was already beginning to feel seriously drained from the spar. 'If I let these Kikaichu keep up for a moment or two more, I'll really be out of options. Best get rid of the bugs now…'

Flexing a minuscule amount of lightning chakra, Kakashi tried to dissuade the bugs, but found that they had all decided to latch onto him completely. Growing more frustrated, the Sharingan user coated his body in flickers of flame, only for the bugs to feed more voraciously on him. Normally that worked, and the lack of reaction brought the jonin up short for a split second; it was one beat too long. A chakra infused punch landed on the jonin, and Kakashi was launched backwards suddenly. 'Christ, I think she broke some ribs with that hit.' Kakashi rolled and came up short, dodging punch after punch that came from the kunoichi. He felt the effects of using the sharingan, forming the vast number of clones to create a perimeter, and the hectic pace of the battle begin to wear on him. 'I just had to be lazy and set up for my day during the match. I couldn't have planned ahead like old times...' Sometimes the masked man regretted his bond of honor to Obito's past. Jerking himself back into the present, Kakashi growled as he dodged a nearly perfect knife hand strike from Sakura.

Her moves were hard to predict, and Kakashi found it very unnerving the way her eyes focus on the center of his body, noticing every slight twitch and reacting perfectly. Time after time, her punches would slip through his guard, until he felt a single hand close over his. 'Oh crap, not that new trick of hers, not now.' Using a one handed seal, Kakashi made a quick shadow clone clone and exchanged spots with it, just in time to watch the clone explode from the inside out. His reserves severely drained by the sudden splitting, the warrior already realized that he probably would not win the match. 'That chakra surge grip of hers is just way too deadly. I'm outlawing that in the next spar.' Before he got too far, Sakura was in front of him again, a jump punch connecting with his cross arm block and sending him hurtling backwards. Feeling a large shadow cross over him, Kakashi realized he was probably at his limit. Turning around, Kakashi noticed a wall of Kikaichu fall on top him. Kakashi felt his chakra drain away, and began to see darkness at the edge of his vision. The last thing he saw before passing out was Naruto over top of him, chasing the bugs away and placing some weird seal on his body.

"Do you think we overdid it?" Sasuke looked down at the older ninja, and blinked a couple of times. He honestly hadn't expected the fight to end after only one round.

"Heh, I just have been getting better at landing punches on him. You and Naruto better watch out, because I'll be gunning for one of you two next!" Inwardly, the kunoichi beamed at her accomplisment. 'That was a perfect hit, yeah!' Sakura was immensely proud of the hit, and felt all of her tension over Shino's creepiness fade as soon as her fist started to hurt just the slightest bit from the impact. A second or two later, the white haired ninja blinked his eyes open, and stared out from between his legs on the ground to give a stare at Sakura.

"Your punches have gotten a lot more accurate Sakura, but you should really be thanking Shino. Seems the boy went above and beyond the call and helped make sure his insects were resistant to both lightning and fire chakra. If it wasn't for that, you wouldn't have even had that opening you needed." Sakura blushed in embarrassment slightly and mumbled a thank you to Shino. As the group laughed, the barrier around the clearing fell and Asuma and Anko came in to join the group. Asuma and Anko knelt, looking over the wounded jonin and chuckling at his expense.

"Need some help there Kakashi? Looks like they wounded you pretty badly…" Asuma's grin was infectious and Anko sported a similar cocky smile.

"I'd like to get up and introduce you both to the broken rib feeling that Sakura introduced me to, but it seems that Naruto here placed a full body lock down technique on me as soon as I was out for a single second." Naruto whistled in the background, pretending not to know what Kakashi was talking about. "Still, if you have to hover over me, would one of you please heal some of the internal bleeding that I'm sure is seeping through my system right now?" Anko chuckled and let her hands glow green before stepping over the injured ninja.

"Now, just tell me if this hurts or not, alright?" Kakashi grimaced as the woman began her exam, but turned his eyes back to the group of genin.

"Hinata, Kiba, you both have become more proficient in your clans taijutsu techniques, to the point that with Akamaru's help, I was completely stalled from taking any other actions. The thing is though that you have had over a month now to practice fighting me, so you are quite aware of the tempo and pace I keep in a fight. This has made it easy for you to pick up on the maneuvers; in the field you won't have that luxury so don't get used to it." Both of the genin nodded, proud of their accomplishment but slightly mollified nonetheless. "Sasuke, Naruto that was some impressive teamwork. I must admit that the two of you working together make a very powerful entry team. The one thing I would caution you on is using wind and fire together at the same time like that; though easy for the two of you to control and predict while fighting me, if you had a third member on the team that was not used to such combat, it would greatly risk their physical safety." Both boys nodded, and shared a grin with each other over their improvements.

"Finally, Sakura," The girl paused for a moment to look down and to the side, "Watch that chakra surge hand technique of yours. Until you get better at genjutsu and can keep an opponent in place for a given amount of time, it is too easy to avoid once an opponent knows it is coming. That being said, please practice it on clones, as I realized the true extent of the destructive power behind that move." Anko quirked an eyebrow from where she was tending to Kakashi's ribs.

"What's so bad about the technique, Scarecrow?" The man blinked at her once out of his brown eye, and sighed.

"By using a slight amount of genjutsu, she wrests control over a number of her opponent's tenketsu. Then, she releases a vicious surge of her own chakra, and causes a similar but opposing surge in her enemy's joints. The result is an implosion of the tenketsu of her opponent's limb, likely resulting in heavy blood loss, broken bones, and a permanently damaged chakra network. That is way too dangerous to allow into a spar." Anko nodded in agreement before turning to the pinkette.

"You came up with that on your own, didn't you?" Sakura nodded, and Anko smiled. "Good! That's the level of technique I expect from my students!" Anko's grin was wide and proud, and Sakura felt herself blush while all of the other genin stared at the woman in shock. Asuma and Kakashi both sweatdropped, and the group broke into nervous chuckles. Kakashi suddenly winced in pain from laughing, and Anko turned a stern glare on the man. "I'll told you to tell me if it hurts!"

xXxXxXx

"It really hurts to have to do this, Shikaku." Minato stared at the other council member, trying to get past his innate dislike for politics. The other ninja had been trying, for the past hour or so, to get the Hokage to see reason when it came to allowing the Iwa ninja to participate in the Chuunin exams. "They treated our prisoners of war very badly during the last dispute, and have only in the last two or three years started to become more agreeable." Shikaku nodded, and took a draw from a cigarette he had in his pocket.

"Yeah, but that just shows that they are ready to start forgetting the past. Face it Minato, except for the random boogey-man encounters with Madara, the world is relatively peaceful these days. Kiri stopped the blood-purges on your insistence last year, and Kumo even signed a treaty with the land of Iron. The world is starting to become peaceful for a change." Shikaku kept his gaze on his leader, chuckling to himself about how Minato, for all of his good qualities, really knew how to hold a grudge.

"That's not what I'm worried about though, Shikaku. We have three, count them, three new groups that want to participate this year." Minato sighed, and pulled the diplomatic documents out to look over again. "First, we have an ambassador from Iwa, asking to join in the competition. History with Iwa aside, letting another major village, which just finished a five year reconstruction plan, into the chunin exams already sets my nerves on edge. Villages don't go through that pace of change unless there is a large cultural shift." Shikaku moved to interrupt, but Minato just swept past him into his next point. "Then, we have ambassadors from both a new village, the village of Sound, and a village that hasn't participated in over ten years, and is only now participating due to the recent death of their leader, Amegakure." Minato's glare was extremely harsh as he turned a questioning look on the Nara. "Who, pray tell, was the leader of Amegakure up until the last month, Shikaku?" Shikaku swallowed; he had been dreading this question.

"Hanzo was the most recent leader, Lord Hokage." Minato dropped the hard edge to his eyes, and sighed. "A ninja without equal, and who was said in his prime to possibly even be a threat to you. Regardless, his passing was expected, as the civil war had dragged on for far too long. We should let the ninja from his village into the exam though, to show that the change in leadership brings no bad feelings with Konoha, or the Land of Fire." Minato turned his gaze once more to the offending documents.

"Yes, we have perfectly valid political obligations to allow all of these villages to participate, for the same could be said about Iwa and Sound. I think that is why I am on edge." Minato took the files, and placed them back into the 'To be dealt with' pile on his desk. "I still cannot, with good faith, approve these until Jiraiya gets back from his most recent trip. Once he has returned, I'll consider looking into the matter once more." Shikaku nodded in agreement, but decided to press the issue one last time.

"If it comes to it though, what will the Hokage's decision be? The council will desire to know, and I can help spin it the right way if there is a meeting you can't attend." Minato nodded, and glanced back at the papers one last time.

"IF there is a meeting that I am called away for, have the decision be that the other villages are allowed to attend, but only allowed to send one team each. That will be my stipulation for their involvement in the proceedings of the Chunin Exams." Shikaku nodded at this, and backed out of the Hokage's office, his mind heavy with what the coming months could mean for his family and clan.

xXxXxXx

Naruto sighed as he walked through the village with Sasuke and Sakura. It had been a long day, and the boy was ready to get home and relax some. "Man, I can't believe that Kakashi gave us Sunday off instead of tomorrow! Now we have to spend time doing more D-rank missions…" The boy frowned as his friends chuckled at his antics.

"Hey, at least you don't have clan obligations to deal with at home, Naruto!" Sasuke jostled his friends shoulder lightly, and the other teen just snickered in response. "It's always 'Sasuke, teach me this' or 'Sasuke, your fire techniques are so cool' or 'Sasuke, how can I activate my Sharingan'. Makes me sick" The boy's voice had pitched unexpectedly high, obviously imitating his more annoying of younger clansmen.

"Oh yeah, that's right. You're technically one of the oldest right now, aren't you? So most of the clan looks up to you now!" Sakura giggled brightly, turning to fix her raven haired teammate with a smile. "So, has the Sasuke fandom pierced even the clan gatherings yet?" Sasuke faked retching a bit, but nodded his head.

"It's really annoying. Hey, Naruto, could I crash at your place tonight actually? I think I want to get out from under foot a bit now." Naruto was surprised by the question, but nodded his head in agreement.

"Sure, you always help me stay level headed when I deal with my dad, so it'll be nice to have you along." Sakura turned an annoyed glare on her teammate.

"You've been doing better recently though, right? Anko-sensei, besides being slightly insane, is really a good teacher, and fairly nice!" Naruto gave her an unbelieving look.

"Are you kidding me? I think you're beginning to suffer from some Stockholm Syndrome there, Sakura. My step-mom is never something I could define as nice. Homicidal and unpredictable, sure, but nice is not one of the more apt words to mind." Sakura frowned a bit, but nodded at the boy's assessment.

"She complimented me on my technique today though…" Sasuke turned and gave her an incredulous look.

"The same one that Kakashi-sensei was too dangerous for live training…yeah, great source of judgment." Sakura gave a menacing scowl now.

"Just remember who has what pictures right now you two…I earned those and I will submit them to the kunoichi fan-boy magazine of the month…" This time it was Naruto's turn to raise an eyebrow, a mischievous grin crossing his face.

"Oh we remember, chicken chaser, we remember." The two boys laughed at her outraged look and dashed off into the night.

'Those two idiots…oh well, could be worse placements for a team I guess.' Sakura rounded the corner and ran straight into a blonde and purple mass that fell backward loudly. "Ino? Is that you?" Sakura looked over to see her childhood friend, collapsed on the ground and giving her a very irate look.

"Watch where you're going, Forehead!" The princess was snappy, and looked a little worn around the edges. Idly, Sakura noticed Shikamaru in the back, with a much thinner and bulkier Choji bringing up the rear.

"Sorry, was a little distracted, just got done with training for the day."

"No problem, we just finished as well. Oh, Shikamaru had something he wanted to talk with you about if you have a second." Sakura blinked in surprise and looked over at the black haired youth. The boy sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, pitching his head to the side to indicate she should follow him. Sakura turned to the others, who shook their heads and made motions towards heading home.

"So, what did you want to talk about Shikimaru?" Sakura eyed the lazy boy warily, knowing that the genius probably had something important to discuss. Anything less would have been too troublesome to motivate the young male. The two of them sat in a busy restaurant, the number of people easily masking their voices. Added onto that was the genjutsu Sakura had woven, giving the two of them the image of sitting amongst a group of friends, chatting amiably. The noise, and perceived images were a loop Sakura had memorized, from one of the first free weekends the rookies had shared after graduating.

"Sakura, have you noticed how much intensive training this year's genin teams are going through?" Sakura blinked and shook her head. "The teams have been pulling ten to twelve hour days of training. According to the info I managed to gather from some of the other Chunin guards, that's more than double what an average year would be put through." Sakura's eyes widened appreciatively, but she seemed content to let the younger boy talk. "My parents have also been more on edge lately, and my dad has frequently gone to meet up with Ino and Chouji's dads late at night. They've been coming home sweating and sober." Now Sakura was on full alert.

"You think that they are prepping for some sort of conflict, huh?" Shikimaru nodded, a grim look settling over his features. "It makes sense, I guess. This is the year that Naruto entered the genin ranks, and his status as the village Jinchuuriki is fairly well known about." The Nara nodded in agreement, and heaved out a huge sigh.

"I had really been hoping you would come to a different conclusion than I did, but with what I've seen, there really is a chance this is because of Naruto. I know my parents have definitely stepped up the training for my group, my dad even teaching me some of the clans more advanced capture jutsu, and helping me train in the earth element. Chouji's been put on a diet, and being forced to train at an exceedingly hard rate, and Ino is being taught advanced genjutsu from Kurenai-sensei. It looks like the Hokage wants to get our year ready for a lot of combat and intensive missions as quickly as possible." Sakura shook her head, realizing how much sense the boy was making was really starting to trouble her.

"When do you think this is all going to come to a head?" Shikimaru sighed, lowering his shoulders, his gaze going harsh for a moment.

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, the Hokage is probably planning on using a demonstration of Konoha's abilities to show that a war with our village would not be the brightest idea. The adults all seem to be training extra hard, but my intel is limited to what I can glean from the shinobi populace. What have you seen from the civilian side?" Sakura shifted a bit nervously; truth be told, she had been rather busy with the schedule and had not been observing her surroundings too much.

"Sorry, Shikimaru, but I've been pulling twelve to fourteen hour work days pretty regularly lately. Anko-sensei has been pushing me in my training recently, a lot more often than Sasuke or Naruto, so I haven't had much chance to gather information." Inwardly the girl was cursing her lack of observation. 'It makes sense, why would I be given a sensei for additional training if there wasn't a strong need to train all of the genin right now. Even Kiba, Hinata, and Shino have been working extra hard, preparing themselves for combat and advanced tracking operations.

Shikimaru merely nodded his head in understanding before letting out a long sigh. "It makes sense then, them working you the hardest. You're the only civilian-ninja on the teams this year, so if anyone were to notice the change it would be you. The older years are preparing for the Chunin Exams right now, so they are probably not caught off guard by the increased training schedule. But when I mentioned my observations to my dad, he warned me from looking into it too closely." Sakura shook her head from side to side, trying to will away the bad thoughts and fears that were creeping into her system.

"Shikimaru, there is something I should share with you; I don't know if it has any importance to why your group is being trained so hard, but I do know it is why my group is being pushed right now." Shikimaru raised an eyebrow, but motioned for the girl to continue. "There is a mission coming up for my team that will take us out of the village. It focuses on having my team and Kiba's team work together. That, combined with three jonin, and it is an attack and detection squad if one was ever assembled." Shikimaru nodded at this, turning his gaze inward as he thought the information over. "The mission is about retrieving artifacts from a destroyed village south of Wave though, so I'm not sure why we need a powerful retrieval and attack group." The words processed in the black haired boy's brain though, and he turned to her with a level eyed gaze.

"The only village that was ever destroyed to the south of Wave was the Whirlpool Village. It was known for powerful sealing jutsu, and for using those to create weaponized constructs. If my guess is right, Naruto shares some connection to the artifacts you are looking for, and will be used to scent out and locate the items. However, the seals of Whirlpool were legendary, so there is no doubt that they will present a serious problem to your access to the artifacts. Keep safe Sakura; I think that your team will be in for a world of hurt when you fight those behemoths." Sakura nodded, and the two teens disappeared back into the bustle of the busy night streets. Inside, the illusion showed the group slowly breaking up, and Shikimaru headed up to pay the bill that the group had supposedly amassed. The boy got some slight pleasure out of crediting the bill to his clan, smiling at his revenge on his father's tight-lipped attitude.

xXxXxXx

Orochimaru forced himself to keep his composure. His lips were drawn into a tight line, his eyes narrowed, and his muscles straining to leap from his chair. 'THAT DAMNED BOY!' Unbeknownst to the legendary ninja, his anger had filtered out and was causing the snakes in his antechamber to hiss violently. The man was lost in his obsession, the face of Itachi Uchiha haunting him as he stared down at his left arm, now reduced to a bloody stump at the wrist. Already, some of the flesh was regenerating, and the bone tissue would follow shortly. Still, the fact that Orochimaru had to sever relations with Akatsuki and give up Itachi's eyes made even this slight solace seem as nothing.

'I WILL have the sharingan, one way or the other. I just need to find a better host for the time being. Konoha is rife with the number of possibilities, so now all I need is a way in, and I can finally lay claim to that great and terrible power.' Orochimaru thrashed out his good arm, slamming it into the throne on which he sat. It had taken him several years, and may attempts at creating a village outside of Akatsuki's notice, but he had managed it. Once his power base had completely solidified, he had moved to take over Itachi's form while on a scouting mission with the boy. Only for the brat to defeat him within his own genjutsu! 'But I have learned much from that interaction. I must capture one touched by the Sharingan, who is not yet fully capable of its powers. With that in mind, I should be able to incorporate it without rejection. If my predictions are right, then I will be able to last within that host for many, many years.' Orochimaru began looking over the file he had obtained for himself, detailing all of the information his most recent mole had gathered about the Uchiha clan. 'It seems that following the civil war from several years ago that a number of children survived. Who would have guessed that the blood-thirsty Itachi had a soft-side…' Despite his anger towards the young warrior, Orochimaru could not help but chuckle in wonder at this; the man had seemed to harden over the years Orochimaru had consorted with him, always completing missions to the letter, even if it involved slaying innocent civilians. 'Ah, but what better revenge than to target his younger brother. I'll have to keep my tabs open about when an opportunity will arise. It would be such a perfect justice to claim Sasuke for my own.' In the dark halls of the subterranean lair, Orochimaru laughed at the heavens, and his summons hissed with hunger and bloodlust.

"I just have to wait, and when the Chunin Exams arrive, the destruction of the leaf will begin. If I can add Sasuke to my collection, before or after the fact, all the better." The cogs in the snake summoner's brain turned, marching in time to his drums of war.

xXxXxXx

"Do you think we lost her?" Naruto asked, turning to look at his companion.

"Yeah, think so. Now, what's the real reason you invited me over earlier today?" Naruto smirked and reached into his back pocket to pull out a letter. "Ah, you need my help playing Casanova again, huh?" Naruto rolled his eyes at his friend, and pitched the thing to him.

"Come on, you know I'm bad at that mushy stuff. Just tell me what Temari said, and help me figure out what to write back, alright?" Sasuke shook his head, but opened the liason, fighting to keep a chuckle from coming out of his chest.

_"My Dearest Naruto, _

_I hope this letter will find you well. The desert is cold at night here, and I miss the warm fires in your home. The days however are oppressively hot, and I look forward to spend time relaxing in some of Konoha's streams and lakes. _

_I'm sure that you passed the Genin Exam recently and have begun training with your team. Who are they? Did you get put with Sasuke and Sakura? I also made Genin this year as well, though that's because I was held back so that my brothers and I could be on one team together. It's really annoying, as I see other girls my age already making Chunin, or even going for Jonin. Gaara was adamant that he graduate this year though; apparently he wanted to make sure that he was in the same year as a certain someone! We both know that means you, you knucklehead. I swear, you and Gaara are a match set when it comes to wanting to piss off your dads. Oh well, it left Kankuro and I plenty of time to get some of our skills down. _

_Speaking of, I managed to get my fan to fly for me recently! We have to go riding the next time I see you, it's so much fun. Though Kaknkuro won't let me take him anywhere in it, and Gaara already can with his sand and all. So ticked that he figured out how to do that a year before I could, the little brat. Still, it's been helping his control over the sand a lot; he hardly ever causes accidents with it anymore, so some of the other kids are starting to socialize with him a little bit I think. Dad's even started to train him, saying that his new calm demeanor makes him easier to work with. _

_Still, I worry for him. He's taken a real liking to this girl in his age group, but she's gone missing the last couple of days. She went on her first big mission outside the village, and her team hasn't reported back yet. I hope it doesn't set him off if something bad happens; he's made so much progress since he started spending the occasional week or so in Konoha with you and Anko and Minato. Oh, did those two finally tie the knot? There was something in your last letter hinting that that might be happening…I know you might not like the idea, but it really is for the best you know! _

_Still, I'm glad we at least have a few more years before we have to start worrying about that; three if I'm right. Though you probably would wish it was sooner if you could see how much I've changed in the last year or so! Hopefully, you've gotten less cute and more handsome too! Anyways, we should definitely go on a date when you and I meet up again, I'll be in Konoha for the Chunin Exams on my sixteenth birthday, so plan something big for me, okay?_

_ Yours, _

_ Temari."_

Naruto blushed at the thought of seeing Temari again. The last time he had seen her she had just turned fourteen, and he had had his eleventh birthday. It had been right around the time she started filling out, and had help prompt his and Sasuke's interest in sneaking off to find 'research spots'. The blush was also creeping up Sasuke a little bit, but the older boy shook it off, making sure to give his friend the evil eye as he read through the letter.

"Jeez, if I keep helping you send her love letters, she'll end up falling for me instead!" Sasuke jibed, though internally the Uchiha would not have minded the chance with the older girl.

"Ch, as if! You may know how to swoon a lady with words, but she and I have a bond that runs all the way to the core! As fellow wind manipulators, we are bound to share a deep and hidden relationship." Naruto stretched each word, adding accents to make the whole effect ludicrous. Sasuke laughed lightly at his friend, shaking his head in mirth. 'But I have to be careful, Sasuke and Temari do seem to get along really well. Maybe I'll force dad into telling me a decent place to take Temari, one of the better ones to swoon her with.'

"Come on, hurry up! Anko said that we were going to be having ramen tonight, as a special way to make sure Dad and I don't fight." Sasuke rolled up the letter and chased after his friend, the streets starting to fill with people for the evening rush of dinner folk.

xXxXxXx

Wow, two updates in one week! Though this one feels like a rather shallow cop-out as it is still more exposition. I don't know why, but I feel as if that's all I've been doing lately. Still, the next chapter will see the group on its first d-rank mission, as well as cover some of the off-time interactions of the group. As I know there are some questions this chapter will raise, especially if there are the important viewers out there who read the previous fic, I promise to explain them in personal messages if you so desire. Otherwise, in the next chapter I will try to deal with the mystery. Wait if you so choose, or if you can figure it out, let me know. Anyways, thanks again for sticking around, and read and review!


	4. Chapter 4

I OWN NOTHING BUT THE ORIGINAL STUFF!

xXxXxXx

"Ah, so you brought Sasuke over for dinner I see!" Anko chirped happily at Naruto and Sasuke as they entered the house, the two focusing instead on the delicious smell emanating from the kitchen. Little had changed in the simple house over the years, the kitchen welcoming guests in on the right and a small dining room on the left. A gathering area, and three rooms attached at the back, with a small bathroom on the ground floor. "Your dad should be coming downstairs any minute Naruto, why don't you and Sasuke set the table?" Naruto shrugged and Sasuke followed along, helping the family lay out the bowls. It was a common routine for the two of them, despite the fact that Anko was now one of their sensei. "Oh, did you get the letter from Temari? I think I remember leaving it out around here somewhere…" Naruto perked up and nodded at Anko.

"Yeah, I got it, me and Sasuke already read it over together." Anko smirked at the boy, ruffling his hair as she brought a large steaming pot of ramen to the table.

"That's good, he can still give you pointers on how to woo a lady." Naruto shot her a frustrated look, sticking his tongue out for emphasis.

"Hey, I am a year older than you, it's bound to happen that I know a few more things about women." Sasuke snickered at his friend's misfortune.

"Ch, yeah right! Your experience is relegated mostly to the village fan-girls of the Uchiha heir." Naruto put on his best innocent girl face. "Oh Sasuke, save me! Oh Sasuke, you're the best! Oh Sasuke, walk to school with me! Bleh!" Sasuke chuckled along, cringing with each outcry in agreement.

"Yeah, they were pretty bad, but at least that will taper off now that we are out of the academy and settling down into the actual ninja careers." Sasuke noticed the Hokage come down from the upstairs, changed into a basic shinobi shirt and pants, looking very out of place.

"Heh, if you think that's the case, then you have a lot of surprises in store for you, Sasuke." Minato's voice got Naruto and Anko to turn, Naruto giving a blank look and Anko beaming at him. "Especially with your group getting ready to take up the mantle as the battle group for your graduating class; the battle group is usually the one made out to be the heroes of the village, and get the most fans out of any of the rookie teams." Sasuke flinched at this news and Naruto rolled his eyes in disgust.

"Fan girls are so annoying dad, why do we have to put up with them?" Minato chuckled and sat down at the table instead of answering. "But, we did manage to finally live up to our group assignment today! Our group managed to knock out Kakashi sensei during training today!" This drew a rise out of the Hokage, who looked over with a bit of mild surprise in his eyes.

"Don't exaggerate kiddo, your team definitely needed the help of Hinata, Kiba, and Shino. If it weren't for the Byakugan and the Kikkaichu, your group would have been in a much worse spot!" Anko chided Naruto, starting to dish out some of the food.

"Yeah, but if Naruto and I keep improving, and if we had had Sakura there to help out, we definitely could have pushed him back for a while." Sasuke chimed in, pacing some of the dango down the table. "Especially if Kakashi sensei would let Naruto use the full range of explosive seals he's been mastering." Minato shot his son a raised eyebrow at this revelation.

"Just what level of explosive have you been practicing, Naruto?" The boy gave a chagrined look at his dad, feeling a blush rise to his cheeks.

"I've only mastered the B-Rank Explosive seal recently, but I've been experimenting with it some, adding in a lot more chakra, and focusing the sealing into weapons. Kakashi sensei won't let me use the ones that I've put into kunai, though he approved my explosive shuriken for battle use." Minato gave his son a slightly harsh glare.

"What have I told you about experimenting with explosive seals before you've mastered the highest level of usage?" Naruto flinched a bit at his dad's harsh tone and words.

"Don't do it?" The boy's response came out low and soft, and Minato smiled at him, his facial expression and body language settling back down.

"Exactly, don't do it. However, in light of the fact that you are already experimenting with the designs, I'll look over what you've done after dinner, and will pass on the next level of seals. Remember, after you get the A-Rank Explosive seals down, any new seals you design are to be brought to me first. I can't have you creating S-Rank Explosives in any sort of uncontrolled setting." Naruto nodded, too excited by the fact that he was getting new sealing books. Before he could voice his thanks though, a large slurping sound came from the other end of the table.

"You know, if you two don't hurry up, Sasuke and I are going to finish all of the ramen…" Naruto and Minato both paled at this, before flashing looks of competition passed between them.

"First one to finish five bowls has to do the dishes for the night…" Minato let the challenge slip, and Naruto smirked back in response.

"Fine, but if I win, you also need to pass on the next level of sealing scrolls for containment purposes. I've got a bit of a project I want to work on…" Minato found his brow rising yet again.

'Maybe placing him on a team with Kakashi was for the best…it's been a while since the two of us have had this sort of camaraderie at dinner.' Minato smiled at his son, his chopsticks flashing in front of him. "You're on!" The two began to dig into the food at an alarming rate, earning stern responses and shouts from both Anko and Sasuke as the broth began to fly all over the table.

xXxXxXx

Minato and Anko stood in the kitchen, cleaning dishes and watching as Sasuke and Naruto pored over the new scrolls for explosive seals. Sasuke never really understood what Naruto was doing half the time, but he found it enjoyable to try and learn something where the Sharingan was of no assistance. Naruto however seemed to absorb sealing techniques like a sponge, though he had to often rework and redo a lot of the symbols in order to get a pattern down.

"He really has been getting better at interacting with you lately…" Anko mused next to Minato, nudging him with her hip when she noticed the distracted look on his face.

Minato, startled a bit, fumbled the plate he was cleaning before recovering it. "Yeah, it's been really nice. I knew placing him on a team where he would be pushed, and would be with his friends would be for the best." Anko hummed in agreement, using the brief moment to bring one of her arms around the older man's waist.

"Interesting choice in the team placements though; the combination of an Inuzuka, Aburame, and Hyuuga, while highly effective is a bit odd. I'm just glad that Hinata girl grew out of her shyness after interacting with Naruto and his friends so much." Minato nodded, placing the now safely cleaned dish on the kitchen rack.

"It was so easy to see the connection that those three families could exploit when I made that team. I just wish one of them was a chakra sensor, which would really balance out the ensemble perfectly." Anko nodded her agreement, handing Minato another dish to clean.

"Giving them Asuma as their sensei also surprised me, but once I got to see what the man could do in combat it made more sense. Having him team up with Kakashi and myself on missions, there will be very few threats that could pose a serious challenge to our group." Minato nodded, washing the dish and placing it on the rack, before drying his hands on a dish towel.

"That was the plan. I hate to say it, but I need you in the field with Naruto as well. Some of our info says that Orochimaru has been working with the group that Madara formed, which means we will need someone who can sense the snake summons." Anko fidgeted a bit at this, her hand going up to the back of her neck. "Hey, I told you, the remission process was complete. I know that it took longer than expected, but the curse mark is gone now." Anko shuddered a bit, nodding her head.

"Yeah, I know boss, it just freaks me out a bit even now." Minato smiled at the nickname, leaning down to place a kiss on Anko's forehead before drawing her into an embrace. "Hey, watch it, they are studying over there you know." Anko's mischievous grin put the lie to her reprimand though, her eyes dancing with passion and desire.

"That's why I think we can get away with it right now." Minato's smirk matched Anko's, and the two of them shared a short kiss. "Still, best not push my luck, especially now that Naruto's studying A-Rank Explosive and B-Rank storage seals. Still, I wish I could get him more interested in summoning. I'm not getting any younger, and it will take him a while to get my trademark down." Anko shrugged, not moving yet from the embrace, and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"He'll work at his own pace. If there is anything we both know about Naruto, it's that you can't push him into things ahead of his own time." Minato nodded, remembering the first time they had tried to get the boy to take the graduation exam. It had been a lot of fighting and hassle, but the boy's reasons eventually won out. Minato smiled, thinking of the confrontational look on his son's face, and the journey that started from there.

_"There is no way I'm taking that exam! If I take that exam, that means I'll have to leave the house more, and that means less time to spend with you! I hardly see you at all dad, there is no way that I'm going to go and make that worse if I can!" The blonde haired kid stared down his father, tears forming in his eyes. "Sasuke's parents are letting him stay in the academy until he's twelve, so why shouldn't I be allowed to!" Minato blinked, pulling back from his son's rebuke, recognizing his mistake. _

_ 'The council really wants to have Naruto graduate, so we can start using the power of the fox to gain more reputation. Still, he really is not up to doing this it seems…then again, neither am I.' Minato turned his surprised face into a bit of a frown as he returned his sons glare with a mildly annoyed look. 'Still, if Mikoto and Fugaku are keeping Sasuke back to let him mature some, I guess I can do the same for Naruto…even if it would make me feel better if he pushed his training more.' _

_Minato had a sudden flash of insight, and reached into his pockets, his face forming into a smile. "Alright Naruto, you can wait to graduate a couple years, but I insist that you start learning some seal work now…I won't be around forever, and the village could use another seal master." Naruto perked up at this, realizing it would mean he got to spend more time with his dad. The boy jumped up to take the scroll, but Minato pulled it back a bit, admonishing him with rap on the knuckles with the scroll. "But, if you can't keep up with what I want in an apprentice, then you have to take the exams and start your ninja training for real, alright?" Naruto frowned but nodded. _

_ "Just you wait! I'll be the best apprentice you've had yet!" Naruto smiled up at his father, snagging the scroll in an instant. A second later, the boy had run off, and Minato started chasing him around the house, trying to catch up with him. A moment or two later, a knock was heard at the door, and Anko shortly followed. _

_ "Looks like you two are up to your normal hijinks…what's got the pipsqueak so riled up, Minato?" Minato smirked at the woman, and Naruto merely frowned at the insult. _

_ "I am not a pipsqueak! Dad just is too slow to catch his newest seal apprentice!" Naruto dodged a flying tackle from his Dad, running and ducking under one of the table legs. Anko blinked at this, and gave Minato a questioning look. The man shrugged, and sighed, pushing himself to his feet. Anko chuckled lightly and brushed some dirt from his hair, causing the man to blush a bit. _

_ "Hey, Anko, don't get Dad distracted! He has to teach me stuff, so he can't be flirting with you all the time!" Anko blushed at the brash boy, and shifted her gaze quickly to him. _

_ "Minato, would you mind some help in catching a certain blonde troublemaker?" Minato smirked as well, and appeared suddenly behind his son, the yellow crack loud in the close quarters. _

_ "Nah, I got him already, but if you want to tickle him some first, that would be perfectly fine by me!" Naruto struggled to get away as Anko approached, a sinister look on her face. _

_ "Stop it, no fair using seals! I don't know that one yet!" Naruto tried to get away, and soon his laughter was heard all over the house. Minato let Naruto go after a bit and turned traitor on Anko, and before long all three were collapsed on the floor, laughing at each other. Naruto was the first to move, struggling out of the tangle of limbs. "It's no fair having two adults gang up on me like that! Especially you, Anko, you're supposed to be my partner in crime when it comes to pranking Dad!" Anko flushed a bit, but chuckled and shook her head. _

_ "Sorry Naruto, but it's fun to change things up once in a while you know? Still, I'm glad you like hanging out and spending time with me, as the council just approved a mission your dad assigned me a while back. I'm coming on as the family bodyguard for the next little while as you and your dad head to the capital for a bit. We'll leave after the school year finishes at the academy." Naruto blinked at that, but his smile nearly split his face. _

_ "See, I told you not graduating early would be a good thing dad!" Minato shook his head but smiled at the woman across from him, causing her to blush a bit more. "Oh man, I better start packing! Dad, I'll train with you later, I have to get stuff ready now!" And with that, the blonde boy was flying to his room, and sounds of clothes going everywhere could be heard. _

_ "That kid has way too much energy for his own good sometimes…" Minato pulled Anko to her feet, and the two of them chuckled as they headed to the kitchen. "It's a bit hot out today, would you like some tea?" Minato turned to Anko, who shrugged and nodded while smiling. _

_ "Just so long as you didn't make it with that bagged tea stuff, you know I don't like those."_

xXxXxXx

Minato and Anko stood in each other's embrace for a bit longer, smiling at the two boys sprawled on the floor. Before long, they ushered the two to bed, and snuck up the stairs themselves. "Minato, do you think that Naruto and his friends will really be ready to go outside the village soon?" Anko's question was one the man had been struggling with for a while. Sighing, the Hokage pitched his shirt to the side of the bed, lowering himself on the edge of the furniture.

"I hope so…I've been getting some distressing reports of Iwa and Kiri making movements lately. It seems that Oonoki finally stepped down, from pressure on the council saying they have the oldest leader in the position. He's been training his replacement, but the new kid is still a bit hotheaded, and not that used to diplomacy." Anko had her interest piqued at this, it was always exciting to know the goings and comings of the ninja leaders.

"Who is it, anyone we know?" Minato nodded a bit, turning back to removing his pants before slipping into the covers. Anko blushed a bit at seeing him in that way; true they were married, and they had gotten fairly physical before, but both of them were still working through a lot of emotional scars from their pasts. 'Minato's still a hunk of a man though, even if he is ten years older than me…just wish I could get the images of Orochimaru out of my head whenever a man touches me.' It had taken a while for the snake charmer to even be comfortable with her husband holding and kissing her. Faking the love between them for the marriage had been difficult, but they had somehow managed to make it work, allowing Anko to keep her word to the man that she admired.

"The newest Tsuchikage is Kurotsuchi, Oonoki's favorite guard and a dead ringer in terms of potential. She has the kekkei genkai for the lava release, and has developed a third element in water despite that. It is also rumored that when Roshi finally passes on, she will be chosen as the next host for the four tailed gorilla because of her elemental aptitudes." Anko smiled, remembering the woman, though she was annoyed as Minato rolled away from her as she changed. He always was a gentleman, never letting her even have the chance to corrupt the man's character. She shrugged out of her own clothes, and snuggled into the bed. Minato rolled to face her, and she cuddled up to him, her sleep wear giving them some separation.

"Yeah, that does give us something to worry about…makes me glad we still get moments like these, you know?" Anko leaned in, hoping to get something started. Minato smiled and kissed her back before pulling back a little. He laughed a bit at her growl and face of displeasure, earning a jab to his shoulder.

"I am glad for these moments Anko, but I have an early meeting with the council tomorrow. Sorry, but we're going to have wait for a better night for some 'funtime' together." Anko still kept up her moue of disappointment, and the man just chuckled lightly at her. She rolled over, and was surprised when Minato pressed himself against her. "But, I understand why you're frustrated, and promise that you and I will get some alone time soon. Naruto and his team have a D-rank tomorrow, and after the early council meeting I have no paperwork that the shadow clones couldn't handle." Minato left the promise hanging as the two of them drifted to sleep, Anko with a hot flush on her face.

xXxXxXx

The hot sun beat down onto Naruto's back as he hefted a large wooden beam. 'Helping a construction crew really sucks during the summer months…' The sweat rolled off the boys form, and he looked around as five or so doppelgangers helped lift some of the logs. The whole morning had proceeded like this, with him, Sasuke and Sakura, as well as the majority of Team Asuma, helping lift and maneuver beams of wood. The D-Rank mission mostly called for ninja only as back up construction crew. A small family of civilians from the village wanted to build a house outside the village's protection area, wanting to raise their child away from the bloodshed and craziness a hidden village could inspire.

'Still, makes me think of the summer months in the capital with Sasuke and Temari.' Not paying attention to what he was doing, the boy swung the beam around, almost decapitating his raven haired friend.

"Watch what you're doing Naruto! Shit, you're lucky that missed you idiot!" Naruto shot Sasuke an apologetic look, even as the older boy glared daggers at him.

"Sorry Sasuke, was getting distracted reminiscing you know…last time we saw construction like this was when we were in the capital, you know?" The Uchiha nodded, lifting himself off the ground, a beam balanced over his shoulder as well.

"Yeah, it has been a while since then. Say, what are you doing after the mission gets done today?" Naruto hefted the beam up to one of the constructions workers, thinking before he answered his friend.

"Not too much I think…I did want to get some practice in with my swords, and then maybe hang out with some of the others on the team…what do you think of going over to your place and spending some time with some of the clan members?" Sasuke blinked, surprised at his friend's suggestion, but nodding none the less.

"Sounds good, with how many fan girls there are to beat off there, an idiot swinging a beam around would be very helpful." Naruto nodded before jumping at the jibe, chasing after the younger boy in frustration. While they were running around a surge of water came out of nowhere and splashed the two boys in the face.

"Oi! Idgits! Get back to work!" Sakura felt her head throb from the heat, and she was mighty pissed at her teammates for slacking off. Kakashi sensei had created a single clone, and was observing from afar, leaving most of the genin to work without Asuma present. Anko was also missing, and the fact that Shino was too weak, and Kiba too lazy to move shingles left the job mostly to Sakura. 'It's hot, no one else is working hard, and I did not sleep well last night, and now these two idiots are running around! No more!' Sakura's look of rage made the two boys cower in fear, both of them fleeing back to their work at twice the pace.

"Sakura, give them a rest will you?" Kiba came from behind her, handing the girl a small cup of water. She thirstily gulped it down, the peace offering keeping her from once more snapping. "Those two have been moving the beams, and Akamaru and I are needed with Hinata for finding the best spots to lie in the base boards." Sakura nodded, knowing this still didn't help to alleviate her foul mood.

"Still, those two were being obnoxious. Oh well, how's it going with Hinata and you?" Kiba smiled, giving her the thumbs up.

"We got the baseboard spots picked out, and all the materials are in place. If we could just have a hundred workers or so we could be finished in the next five minutes!" Sakura smirked, getting an evil idea.

"I think I know where we can find a hundred workers, Kiba…be back in a second." Sakura found Naruto and Sasuke reclining against one of the piles of wood, both done with moving the logs for the time being. As she approached, she noticed intricate designs being carved on some of the interior pieces by Shino, his bugs eating into the woodwork. Though it was fairly useful, and a nice bonus to have woodwork designs done so intricately, the bugs still freaked the girl out. Shaking it off, Sakura approached the two boys as they rested peacefully. "Oh Naruto-kun…" Sakura's voice was sweet and pitched low, causing the boy to suddenly jerk awake and blink in fear at Sakura. That voice was known for one thing; making him do something unpleasant. Before he could get away, he noticed that Sasuke had already bolted.

'Traitorous bastard…' Naruto thought, noticing his pink haired friend approach. The girl bent low, placing her chest right at eye level with the boy. Naruto fought to keep his gaze on her eyes. "What is it, Sakura-chan?" Naruto swore as he heard a tremble in his voice. 'Damn it Temari, why did you have to teach Sakura that trick!'

"Oh, well, I wanted to apologize for yelling back there. It's just so hot out today you know?" The girl sat down next to the boy, pulling her shirt away from her chest a couple of times. 'Haha, sucker! Thank god for Temari and her advice on how to make boys do things…' Sakura moved closer, rolling her neck and stretching a little to show off more of her skin. "But Kiba says that if we could get a hundred more workers or so, we could be out of here in no time…" Naruto saw where she was going, and sighed in anticipation. He already knew he would cave, he just wished he was better at resisting the requests of attractive females.

"Yeah, alright, give me a second." Crossing his fingers, a large amount of smoke filled the area as a miniature army of Naruto's came into existence. In a matter of minutes, the house was raised, and the construction workers gave out cheers of approval. Mixed in were comments about the greatness of the Hokage and his family. Naruto darkened a bit at that, but shrugged it off, turning to face his teammate. "Hey, now that the work is done, do you and the others want to go over to Sasuke's place and spend some time with his family?" Sakura blinked, but nodded.

"Afterwards though, we should head over to my place, my dad just got back from the capital, and he has some exciting news to share. Something about a new trade partner for his textiles in the land of rice, I think." Naruto nodded in agreement with Sakura, turning to wave over the others. Once they were all gathered, Naruto put his hands around his mouth and yelled towards Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're in charge of handling the mission details and payout, so we'll meet up with you later, alright!" Kakashi blinked at the boy, his loud voice was really something. Kakashi nodded though, and quickly took to the trees, hoping to get his free time for the day underway.

'Still, glad to see the boy open up some now that he has more time to spend with his teammates and away from the villagers. Being the son of the Hokage is definitely hard on him.' Kakashi landed at the edge of the forest and took to the streets, his pace leisurely as he waved to several of the smiling youth around him.

xXxXxXx

A young boy with straight black hair and pale skin sat in front of a grizzled old man, whose chin was cut in a diagonal cross, and his right side obscured by various bandages. The child was young, and seemed terrified of the aged warrior, despite his crippled appearance. The man sat perfectly calmly, examining the child, before smiling faintly and handing the boy a slip of paper. When it immediately ignited into flame, the man smiled faintly once more, before making his hand into an esoteric gesture. Men covered head to foot in black garb suddenly appeared, and escorted the youth away, his terrified eyes hot red with a tomoe spinning in the center.

"Danzo-sama, it seems that there have been a number of additions to Root from the children of the Uchiha clan as of late…why is that?" Danzo smiled to the man on his right, appreciating the fact that the Yondaime, unlike his predecessor was able to understand the need for human weapons in a shinobi village.

"These are the illegitimate children that the youth of the recent Uchiha civil war spawned. It seems that the immigrants from Kumo, while able to serve as good surrogate parents, and integrate easily into the Uchiha clan, also brought with them some of their looser sexual mores." Danzo smiled at this fact, as the Fourth Hokage had stated that abandoned children that were not taken in that hailed from ninja families were to be given to Root if they developed a kekkei genkai. The man may have severely curtailed his actions outside of the village, but he had left Danzo control of boosting the numbers of ANBU and using Root as double agents in certain situations.

"Be that as it may, remember that they have to be allowed the requisite amount of time in the orphanages before they are taken from here. It would be a true travesty if the Uchiha clan learned we have salvaged several 'mishaps' of theirs, as Fugaku would demand their return to the clan." Minato sighed as he stepped into the light offered in the darkened, underground cellar. "I know you currently have three members from the Uchiha clan that will be trained in the ways of Root, but anymore, especially ones who seemed as young as that, and I will severely curtail the current program. I know for a fact that several of the children that the Kumo ninja sired have been added into Root without their knowledge, so I feel it is time that I bring this program to an end." Danzo inwardly reeled as if he had been struck; the Yondaime had started this program, in order to bolster Root, and now he was ending it? 'What's come into that head of yours, you insolent little whelp?' Danzo kept his comment to himself, and his face neutral.

"The reason for that is the mounting war that will soon be coming to Konoha. I need Root to begin integrating with the shinobi population at large, and several of your training regimens, vetted by me personally, will be added into the regular training of our shinobi." Danzo smiled slightly, accepting the man's word, but was in true turmoil inside his head.

'Is he intending to do this to end Root once and for all? To integrate us into the Shinobi populace as a whole?' Danzo found his voice, and coughed once to clear his throat. "It is good to know that Root will be seeing some active service. I take it that the training of orphaned children from ninja heritage will become a popular initiative among the village at large then?" Minato nodded, confirming the older ninja's fears. 'Still, he doesn't know about the Uchiha youth I've had placed in the village to help with this program. As long as that doesn't come out, I should be fine.' Danzo nodded once with this, allowing a small frown to come to his face.

"The end goal will be the extinction of Root Danzo." Minato's voice held even as he looked over the man closely. "Root has existed for too long, and some of the seals you used before I became involved with the group were completely out of line. On top of that, I know that there are still several things that are still being kept from me. I will not allow for that. You are also aging, and while I am sure you have kept several surprises from me in terms of your battle abilities, your time does draw near. I will not have sleeper cells waiting inside my village, springing up and causing trouble after you are gone." Minato's eyes had taken on their legendary hard stare, azure orbs of death boring into the older ninja. Though Danzo had been through several wars in his youth, the man across from him was the only person so far that could rattle his cage.

"I would never dream of purposefully keeping things from you, though if you find any reports that are unnerving, please bring them to my attention and I will look into them." Danzo felt his grip tighten on his cane as he started heading from the room. "I believe we have a council meeting soon, Hokage-sama." Danzo inwardly was fighting to keep his emotions in check. 'He cannot find out about the Uchiha plants I have within the village. If he does, he will know why I had them placed, and will discover the true source of the Uchiha youths I have been recruiting. I had hoped that the idea that three of the Uchiha died when encountering Orochimaru all those years ago would have been sufficient to keep him off my trail.'

Minato followed behind the older man, heading through several twisting, underground tunnels before arriving in a long hallway that lead to the grand council room. As the doors opened, Danzo and Minato walked in, Minato having taken the lead part of the way there. Several of the council members were already seated, including Fugaku Uchiha, and two surprise visitors. Minato smiled at seeing his mentor, and his mentor's unrequited love. It had been far too long since the three of them spent time together. 'Sorry Anko, but I might have to discuss some things for longer than I thought. I might not make it back in time today.' Minato walked around the circle, taking his seat as several more of the clan heads filed into the room.

"I have called this meeting today to address several coming concerns for the village. As many of you know, there are signs that war may soon come to Konoha. While the Chuunin exams have helped to stave off bloodshed, the current signs of the world at large cannot be ignored. Iwa and Kiri are mounting war parties as we speak, Kiri having gone through an extensive number of years of gathering bloodlines and elevating their status. Iwa has also undergone recent changes to prepare for war, going so far as replacing their current leader, and we believe, retrieving their two jinchuuriki." This drew some grumbles from the collected group, and Minato sighed at that. He knew that this was going to be a hard sell, but he needed to convince the council of the coming dangers. "There has also been reports that Hanzo the Salamander has fallen." This drew far more response, and Minato smiled at that, knowing the name of the legendary warrior would focus the group on his concerns.

"Hokage-sama, be that as it may, we do have binding alliances with both Suna and Kumo. Surely with three of the five on our side, we have a better than even chance of winning the coming war." The Hokage nodded at that, inwardly smiling at the intellect of the Nara.

"I know, but the other countries currently have something we do not; they have four Jinchuuriki of their own, all of which are trained both in the use of it and their own shinobi abilities, with experience in past wars. We currently have four as well, with a possible fifth if Takigakure joins us. However, of those five, one is extremely elderly, and another two are children. That gives us only two real jinchuuriki to place on the table of war, only one of which has ever experienced an actual war. Combine that with the rise of a group of powerful criminals in Ame, and there is a precarious balance into which the leaf might fall." Shikaku nodded at this, and it was Tsume that spoke up next.

"You are suggesting the integration of some of the older training methods for the youth of our shinobi, then?" Minato nodded, and Tsume smiled slightly. "I agree with the reasons now that you lay them out, but we will need to convince some of the civilian population as well. Shinobi who train in elemental techniques earlier on have a much higher tendency to develop bloodthirsty streaks." Minato nodded at this, his counter argument already prepared.

"While that is true, as long as only C-rank techniques are taught to genin, there should be no problem with the mental development of our warriors. B-ranks and A-ranks will be saved for Chuunin and above." Jiraiya pushed off of the wall at this, turning to face the council at large.

"While I don't necessarily agree with Minato, what he says is certainly feasible. I would however like to stipulate that the summons contracts not be revived as part of the training program. Summons should be saved for those who know families of the summoners, as they have become rather attached to certain individual families over the years." Several on the council nodded at this, and it was Shiba Aburame who spoke next.

"There will need to be someone who is well versed in the older methods of teaching to lead such a program though; who here will take that mantle?" The question reverberated around the room, as eyes turned to several members of the audience. Minato was staring at Danzo pointedly, though many looked to Jiraiya and Tsunade expectantly.

With a pounding of a cane, Danzo stood slowly to stare the council in the eyes. "I have already discussed this with Namikaze-sama in private, and I will take over this mantle. Included in this request is that my Root operatives be integrated into the village at large, and given work training the populace as a whole." Minato nodded, noting the quiet whispers that filled the room, and grimacing at the distraught look in Jiraiya's eyes.

'Sorry, Jiraiya, but this is what is right for the village.' "There will be one other program that will be instated, and though I am surprised by her presence today, Tsunade's arrival is most prophetic. Though it had been dismissed during the last war due to a lack of time and resources to train a number of necessary operatives, with the time we have to hand we will instate the use of one medic per each three man squad." This brought several murmurs from the crowd, but it was silenced as Tsunade stepped forward to speak.

"Thank you, Minato. I had come to tell the village that I would be returning to only give hand off some new anti-venom, but with this, I would like to step forward and add myself to the list of villagers once more. I will work hard to make this program a success." As Tsunade stepped back, Minato smiled and moved onto the next topic.

The comments and concerns dragged on with the current programs for quite some time, and Minato felt his head start to hurt. Checking his mental clock, Minato realized he was most definitely late for meeting with Anko. 'Guess I better grad some dango on the way home...' Sighing, the man rose and cleared his voice, drawing the attention of the council. "I know many of you have other concerns you would like to voice, but seeing as there is a need for individual conversations before anything else can proceed, why don't we adjourn for a few minutes and then reconvene." Minato walked from his position in the center of the circle to go follow after Tsunade and the others. In a few quick steps he had caught up to his two old acquaintances, an easy smile forming on his face. Jiraiya gave him a pouting look before slugging him lightly on the shoulder.

"You sure about your choice up there, kid?" Jiraiya looked over Minato, who tensed at the kid comment, but nodded his head. "I know the old bat will get our troops up to battle readiness, but ending Root will mean possibly shifting more of the dirty work to ANBU. Without his harsh indoctrination, we're going to have a lot more drop out quickly." Minato sadly nodded to this as well, but shook his head before looking up.

"I know it will mean that, but the village needs to acknowledge that shinobi also do distasteful missions. If we continue on the current path of the will of fire, there will be passionate zealots as warriors, and those are the most likely to make mistakes that get them killed. By acknowledging our good and bad traits, we can grow more as a village I feel." Jiraiya nodded at his apprentice, still not quite forgiving him but smiled none-the-less. "I also didn't choose you for the position as I'm in need of your spy network for some serious work soon." Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at this, but Minato shook his head, his signal to talk about it later.

"Well, I'm glad you're getting this crew ready to fight! I've been traveling, even past the border with Iwa, and let me tell you, the lands far from here are in serious turmoil right now." Minato smiled at Tsunade, glad that Jiraiya had convinced her to return. "I found out that they also have developed very different styles of fighting from ours, and their weaponry is advancing much faster apace. You need to get some research underway, maybe get the Daimyo to invest." Minato nodded, already trying to think about when he could visit the busy ruler. "Anyways, I'm glad to be back, and glad that you're starting the medic program I wanted. So, do you know anyone in your son's group that I should focus on?" Minato nodded, and pulled out a sheet of paper on which several names were written.

"The first priority you're going to have is training Haruno Sakura. She is working with Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha, and they are going to be one of the intensive battle units if I can help it."

xXxXxXx

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura raced through the main gates of the Uchiha compound, Sakura pulling into the lead at the last second. The two boys shot her a mean look as she stuck out her tongue at them, but the three quickly broke into laughter.

"Man, it's too bad Kiba and the others couldn't join us…" Naruto stood up, and pulled his bandana down, letting his blonde hair fall free. He paused and tied it around his waist, and Sakura giggled slightly at him. "What?"

"Your hair is really crazy when you keep it under wraps all day…" The girl smiled, stepping forward to ruffle his hair lightly. Naruto squawked and pulled away, shaking his hair out for himself.

"Well, if it isn't the slowpoke genius and his friends?" A drawling voice came from the left of the group, standing in one of the side streets that branched off the main gate plaza. "You three done with missions for the day already?" A boy with long black hair that framed his face, and wore baggy pants and shirt stood, a partner on his left and right. A girl on the left that was about the same age as the central boy, who looked to be in his early teens, wore a Chuunin vest covering a long black kimono and red obi. The boy on the right had a simple shinobi pants and shirts, but had an arm guard with a hawk resting on it. All three of them had smirked as Sasuke lit up his Sharingan, all three tomoe spinning in each eye.

"Hoo hoo, looks like we angered the main branch scion…best watch out Kaito…" The girl had a lilting voice, her own eyes now spinning with twin tomoe in each eye. The central boy had a similar amount to her, and seemed to regard Sasuke coolly.

"Eriko, when are you going to realize that the number of tomoe isn't what matters…it's how you use them." The center boy smirked, his eyes fading back to normal. "Sasuke, you best watch yourself in the coming exams. My team still needs to compete in order to get two of our vests, and we plan to sweep the whole contest." Sasuke smirked and scoffed at the older Uchiha.

"Like my team would ever lose to a bunch of punks like you…what, scared of some fresh genin so much you have to warn them off two months before the exam?" Kaito stiffened a bit at this, and bit back a retort of his own. The silent hawk boy raised his arm, letting his hand fall on the taller boy's shoulder.

"Let go, Taichiro. I'm not going to do anything to him." The hand removed itself, but the hawk was still glaring at the central boy. As the two turned and left, Taichiro turned to the remaining three genin.

"Sorry about their attitude, our sensei has been pushing us rather hard lately, and they wanted to vent some anger. Next time, I will make sure to intrude earlier. Sasuke, there is a clan gathering tomorrow night, do not miss it or I will inform your family that you were given prior notice." Sasuke grimaced, but bowed to Taichiro. Taichiro returned the bow, and gave his apologies once more to both Naruto and Sakura. Naruto and Sakura had for the most part, stayed to the side and kept quiet. It was a common occurrence for Sasuke to have to deal with the group of troublemakers, but they both knew to stay out of clan politics.

"Come on, let's get going. We still have to make it through the market areas, and you know that some of them will be trying to sell us various wares and such." Sasuke took the lead, heading up the main road of the complex, the two other forks left untouched. As they ventured further into the complex, Naruto was once again struck by how much the Uchiha clan had recovered. Though his dad had not allowed the Uchiha to instate their older traditions of clan survival, nearly all of the Kumo ninja had agreed to act as parents, and the females had been given injections of some of the Uchiha DNA, allowing for the fathering of a number of children. Naruto stopped as he felt his senses suddenly tingle with a familiar chakra.

"Hey, I think Yuugito is back!" Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes, Yuugito and Naruto shared a special relationship. Sasuke quickly moved some of the onlookers back on one side of the street as Sakura cleared the other. An instant later, a flying kick came from a woman dressed all in black as Naruto dodged, and jumped back. "Haha, you miss again, crazy cat!" Yuugito smiled at the blonde, a chuckle coming from the crowd at the antics of the two. They were both well-known and respected by a majority of the clan, and the two shared small grins with one another as they headed towards the central complex.

"Sasuke, you have some more requests for training and advice, by the way…" Yuugito's comment drew a darkened look from the raven.

"Why are they asking me for help? Just because I'm the scion doesn't mean I'm better at learning this stuff or anything like that!" Naruto chuckled and jostled his friends shoulder lightly.

"Yeah, mastering two elements, and your Sharingan by the age of twelve…you sure aren't better at learning this stuff than most people…" Sasuke growled lightly and shot Naruto a dirty look. "Anyways, if Natsuki is looking for training, you know I'd be willing to help…she is a rare wind type in the Uchiha clan, and that is my specialty you know…" Now Sasuke gave Naruto a real glare.

"Keep your perverted eyes away from my cousin! Besides, you already have Temari, don't you? Or is the whole long distance relationship proving a bit much for you, huh?" Naruto gave his friend a sour face, and Sakura shook her head at the boys.

"Yuugito, how long does it take boys to grow up?" The older woman chuckled and gave Sakura a mischievous smile.

"I'm not too sure if they do, Sakura…"

xXxXxXx

"You're like a boy playing with fire, you know that?" The priest spat out blood from his mouth, coughing to stay awake as his world faded on him. The man above him, his black and white robe fading in and out of sight sighed as he jostled harshly once again. The monk felt life return to his limbs and knew his injuries were being healed.

"You will tell me what you know about the three treasures…I need this information old man, and you are not the only one of the Fire Monks to be outside the temple…still if you keep this up I will eradicate your whole group and read your intestines to learn the location of the treasures." The man healed the old monk slowly, and the monk felt the pain of the healing spread through his body. His body was completely bound, and he could not move. Still, his eyes were able to take in more of the image of the man beside him. Long black hair, tied in a single braid at the back of his head, along with several bandages wrapped at the base. He had a headband, with a symbol that was unrecognizable. Along with that were fishnet arm guards, and black overcoat with white markings. His under clothes were a dark shade of blue, his leggings similar and covered in several bandages here and there. On the whole, he was an unremarkable ninja, but his face, though kind seeming held eyes of ancient age.

Feeling his life beginning to restore completely, and wishing the days of torture to end, the monk turned to the man, and coughed once, pointing to water. As it was offered him, the man swallowed the water, and gave the boy a smiling look of peace. "If you seek the treasures, it is not to the fire temple you must go, but to a place even more impossible to breach…you must seek the Naka Shrine in Konoha." The priest felt the healing stop, and he slowly made his way to his feet as the man that had held him captive regarded him closely. The man nodded once, turning to leave; as he did so, the monk smiled and raised himself to a standing position. He took in the room around him, and nodded; it was a good room to die in.

"But you will not get to see that shrine." The monk had folded his hands into a strange position, and his eyes began to glow with an ominous gold color. "Amida, Kannon, and Seishi: The Welcoming to the Next Moon" From around the priest, three ghostly images sprang to life, one of which was ringed in light from a sun, another in water and a feeling of sadness, and the third in the glow of the moon, which resonated inner strength. The priest felt his life drain away but was at peace. The attack was unstoppable, and he died, knowing he had tried his hardest to prevent great calamity from befalling the world. When his body hit the ground, the images faded away, and the figures left from their existence. In the spot where the attack had hit, there was a crater, and a swirling of air, before a figure stepped out of nothingness.

"Troublesome old man. Still, Konoha will be a bit of a problem to infiltrate…guess I better study my seals for a while then…"

xXxXxXx

"You are sure the document has it's seal still intact, yes?" Kisame nodded, handing the missive over to the Mizukage. He had been surprised when his home country had asked him to return home, and more surprised to learn that his temporary employer from before the war was once more at the rains, though this time hiding behind a different political puppet. "Good, we will need to develop our forces quickly, and the best way will be to either recover the power of the six tailed slug, or to completely reseal it in a new host. For the time being, you are to continue working with Utakata, and get him ready for the coming months. I will see to the deliverance of this missive to the proper parties." It still gave Kisame the creeps as he nodded and left the room, hearing the voice of that woman talk with the masked man's voice behind it. It was unsettling to say the least.

"Well, now what am I supposed to do…I have the forces training, and I've bolstered the bloodline users so they can fight that damned leaf village…guess the only thing left to do today is send this so that Orochimaru will strike Konoha for sure. If he believes he is getting help from Iwa and Kiri, and that we have taken Takigakure's Jinchuuriki out of the picture, well, there is no way he would pass up an opportunity to get some revenge on his old stomping ground. I just have to make sure that the pawns move in the way I need them, and things should quickly come to a head…" The halls of the Mizukage, surrounded by thunderous falls of water, echoed with quiet laughter. The missive was tucked away, and the lit torches slowly faded out as the Mizukage left the room, her body moving against her will, even as she struggled mentally against her possessor. As she walked out onto the veranda, and overlooked her village, the starry sky seemed to taunt her; the far off planets moved freely, while her form was trapped behind the cage of a madman.

xXxXxXx

Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke reclined against a grass hill, watching the sun fade into the distance. They were relaxing in Sakura's back yard, her father and mother inside, finishing off the dishes from the dinner they had shared. Her mother had given Sakura the night off from dish work, though she did mention that Sakura had to go to the hospital tomorrow. Something about more training, and though she tried not to dread the increased workload, she still felt as if she was being pushed more than her teammates to develop. 'I don't see why though…just because my parents aren't from a ninja clan shouldn't mean that I'm forced to develop more quickly…' The girl sighed, and rolled on her side to look at her teammates. Sasuke was staring at the sky, and Naruto was fast asleep on the far side of the Uchiha. Sakura smiled at them, 'I'm really lucky though to have such good friends as these two to count on…'

"What are you thinking about, Sakura?" Sasuke kept his gaze on the heavens, trying to find constellations his brother had taught him years ago.

"Just that I have way more training than either of you two lately…" Sasuke chuckled lightly at this, and turned his gaze toward her.

"Of course you do…you have to keep up with a Jinchuuriki and a genius Uchiha…you think they wouldn't push you for that?" Sakura grinned slightly at this, but still gave the boy a playful shove to his shoulder.

"Still, it seems like we're being pushed really hard. Shikimaru thinks so as well, you know…" Sasuke looked surprised by that, but nodded. The Nara were known for their intellect, so it did not surprise him greatly. "We only have one more week, and then we have to head out with Team Asuma; after that, we'll probably come back just in time for the Chuunin exams. I just wish I knew why we were being kept out of the village during the month leading up to the exams…" Sasuke shrugged, not really caring himself. Naruto chose that time to roll over and start mumbling in his sleep. The near contact made Sasuke jump, and moved closer to Sakura. At the girls raised eyebrows, Sasuke gave her a pleading glare.

"You know he gets cuddly when he sleeps! I'm not letting that bastard near me…" Sasuke's harsh whisper drew a laugh from Sakura. It was unfortunately loud enough to rouse their friend.

"What's going on, did I miss the sunset?" Naruto blinked blearily at the two of them, who both nodded in agreement. Naruto yawned and stretched, his joints cracking as he did so. "Hey guys, look! The meteor shower's started!" Turning quickly the two other teens watched as the heavens rained. "Ha, now we have a lot of things we can wish for! I bet you the next few weeks are going to be awesome!" Naruto's smile was infectious, and the other two began to sport their own grins.

"More like crazy! If I know one thing, it's that hanging out with you two is always an adventure." Sakura stood, a playful smirk growing out of her smile. In an instant, the evening dew on the grass had gathered into a large sphere over the heads of the two boys. Squawking protests, the two leaped away as water balls chased after them. Their laughter echoed into the night, and the stars twinkled back in merriment.

xXxXxXx

There we go! Thought I'd end the chapter on a fluff note. Hope this one is appreciated, took me a while to figure out what needed to happen and where. The mystery with Orochimaru and the Sharingan is mostly wrapped up now, but I had to introduce four OC characters. The designs were from some awesome fan art I found out there for Naruto OC's, so I would like to extend a quick personal thanks to ikeda and nick-a-nu. Give the latter's dojinshi a read, as I'm really mostly taking the look of the character and none of the personality. Next chapter will have more focus on the week leading up to departure, as well as the interactions of Team Asuma 2.0 on their off days, then a start to the long arc for the big mission outside the village. Hope you all like it, and as always, read and review!


	5. Chapter 5

I OWN NOTHING BUT MY ORIGINAL STUFF!

xXxXxXx

8 Days Before Departure

Minato walked into his house, rolling his neck and shoulders to get some stress relief. The sun behind him was already falling in the sky, the council meeting having run far longer than intended. Dickering had been over the special teams he had formed that year, as well as the cross team training he was putting in place for the graduating classes. It was not his fault that there were a number of clan scions that needed special treatment this year! It was mostly due to Naruto managing to form close bonds with all of the clan scions that were around his age; it had left a large number of them desiring to graduate in the same year as the blonde, and meant that Minato had to form special teams for each of the groups. The capture, combat, and tracking squads were easy enough to conceive of, though Minato admitted that it was Fugaku who had spearheaded the motion to combine the Byakugan, Kikkaichu, and Inuzuka abilities. It was really an auspicious suggestion; none of the three could take over the duties that the ailing Uchiha were performing as the military police, but together, and with Uchiha supervision, the group was starting to flourish. It was almost as smooth as the days before the civil insurrection, but with the added bonus that now the Uchiha clan was reaching out and making alliances with other areas of the village.

Still, there were many on the council who were conservative in their approach to the village; too much change was difficult to manage, and groups could easily slip through the cracks. The integration of the Root members, not to mention the changing of the military police had brought enough policy change, but the addition of the medic program was nearly too much for the council to bear. They had managed to force a concession out of him, especially when Jiraiya had sided against him, for allowing elemental training at younger ages. Though he had pushed for that sort of training for combat squads, which was primarily out of concern for his son. Now that the vast majority of the village's children were exposed to it, Minato was less certain about his decision.

Letting his coat fall onto the chair on the table, the weary Hokage made his way upstairs, flustered and distracted by the day's events. As he did, he noticed that the master bedrooms door was open, and a number of flickering lights were lit. Nudging the door open wider, Minato felt his jaw loosen a bit as he took in the sight of Anko, fully nude with her back to him, her long purple hair down and pooling at the base of her spine. Arching sensuously, she turned to him and fixed him with a smile. She covered her form with the thinnest sheet, and approached him, her eyes smoldering and focused.

'This is bad. That smile is the one reserved for when I mess up.' Minato swallowed harshly, forcing himself to reach towards his sleeve. His mind had remembered that she would be mad for missing their afternoon date, so he had luckily stopped by Inoichi's place afterwards to pick up flowers; the movement however was interpreted as he reached for his transportation kunai. In a flash Minato soon found himself pressed against a wall, snakes wrapped around his torso. Anko continued to move forward, her hips sashaying, drawing Minato's eyes along all of her curves. Swallowing again, Minato found himself being drawn in by that snake charm smile as she placed her hands on his cheek lovingly.

"You wouldn't be thinking about running away on me, would you?" Anko's smile and soft tone told Minato he was in deep trouble. "After I set up a scene like this for you to come home to, and you're three hours late…you think I would just let you slip out?" There were tear marks from her eyes, and Minato could tell that she had been slightly ticked about the transgression. Still, he managed to squirm an arm free enough to summon a dozen roses into the air, placing them into his left hand. With his right, he managed to shift his way out of the snakes. Anko took one look at the roses, and scoffed lightly.

"You think some flowers will get you out of this?" Minato paled a bit more, but then smiled his goofball smile.

"How about a dozen roses and a week off of work? For both of us?" Anko's eyebrows shot up; it was unheard of for a Hokage to take such a long break. "Jiraiya and Tsunade are in town. Naruto will be working with Jiraiya for the week, and Tsunade will be taking over Sakura's training. Tsunade will also be getting her feet wet as a Hokage as well; she has been chosen over Kakashi as the next Hokage." Anko grimaced slightly at that; Kakashi was a good ninja, and deserved to be rewarded for his extraordinary growth over the last several years. "After a young buck like myself has shook up the system for several years, I think they want a more calm individual at the helm." Anko smirked and leaned forward, letting the slip fall slightly from her chest.

"Well, if you're such a young buck still, why haven't you chased me to the bed yet?" Minato's eyes took on a blazing look, and Anko soon found herself being picked up and taken back to the bed. "That's more like it, I love it when you look at me like that!" Her breath was suddenly very short, and she quickly crushed her mouth to his. His hands explored her back, trailing lightly over scars and the canvas of her skin. His other hand cupped her cheek and fisted in her hair. She was busy pulling at his clothes, rushing him to meet her in their state of undress. Minato pulled back from the kiss, and released his last vestments before yanking the slip away from her suddenly. Anko blushed heavily and covered herself a bit, even as Minato's eyes blazed at her longingly. There was a hitch in both of their breaths, and Minato moved forward, kissing her gently along her neck. Up to her ear, and then down along the nape of her neck, his mouth leaving a blazing trail.

She herself let her hands roam through his hair, the silky fibers addicting to her touch. There was a tension building in her stomach, one which had not been present for the last few months with Minato. Training and stress, and a lack of opportunity all merged together to keep her libido in check; now that the moment arrived, Anko was struggling to keep her moans inside, wanting to delay their time of joining. Anko arched herself up to him, her hands traveling over his chest, over his back, and her legs beginning to pull him closer to her core. Minato felt himself drawn forward, and he turned his kisses into lite bites as he traveled across her breastbone, becoming gentle as he traversed her chest longingly. His lips found their way across her bosom, settling onto her brown knobs before sucking, causing Anko's breath to hitch. There was moment of incredible bliss as his hand brushed along her core suddenly, teasing her with circular motions that made her pant in anticipation. Anko felt her hand find his member, and after a few quick workings he was up and ready.

"Minato…I need this…don't hold back, no matter what I say…" Minato nodded and pressed forward. It was exceedingly tight at first, and rough to adjust too for both parties. After a second or two though, Minato began to move and Anko felt herself gripping the sheets, her legs pulling him on top of her. The movements picked up, and Anko kept her eyes wide open as she stared into his passionate face. Her hands lifted from the bed and fisted in his hair, pulling him down to her neck, panting as she gripped his back. His motions picked up pace, and Anko felt her breath hitch.

Memories came back, unbidden, and undesired. Suddenly, Anko was a teenager again, and the man above her was white skinned and had long, black silky hair. She hissed in pain, fighting off the specter, struggling not to cry out from the buried memory. Suddenly though, she was back in the present, Minato holding her tenderly. She felt tears on her cheeks, and realized she had been crying again. 'First, he reminds me of him today by abandoning me, without even sending a letter. Then, his lack of speaking reminds me of him again during sex.' Anko felt her shoulders slouch, but brightened when Minato placed a kiss against her cheek. Minato smiled at her, and wiped away the tears on her face. 'He never will be like him though; he loves me, unlike that bastard.' Anko rolled to the side, and grabbed some of the paper towels by the side of the bed. In a moment or two, she had let the remnants of the act leak out of her. Minato cleaned himself, and then held out his hands for the refuse from her.

"Thanks. Sorry about that back there; I think that was the longest we've ever gotten without him interfering." Minato took the trash over to the bin, nodding at her assessment.

"You didn't even cry out that time. I hate to say it, but I didn't figure out the reason for the tears until right after I finished." Minato's words were shaky as well; it was always trying for him, as he forced himself to forget some of his own memories of Kushina, though for the opposite reason of Anko. He hated himself for not being more aware to Anko's displeasure, and hated himself for thinking of Kushina whenever he lied with her.

"Yeah…well…all we can do is keep trying, right boss?" Her voice was shaky, and her face was absent of all of the normal confidence. Minato walked over and wrapped his arm around her lovingly, pulling her into an embrace. Anko curled up around him like a small child, her hands around his neck and her legs across his lap. "I'm glad I get to keep trying with a guy who's willing to put up with my mercurial moods…" Minato shushed her gently and held her closer, laying her back down on the bed with him.

"I love your moods Anko; if you remember, Kushina was not exactly known for her temper control." Anko laughed lightly at the joke, and rolled over to look him in the eyes as she wrapped her arms around him and entangled their legs.

'God, he really is beautiful, even for a man.' Anko felt herself blush slightly as she stared at Minato. Her hand came up and traced his face lovingly, before falling down to his waist. "Why was the council meeting so long? And I know you mentioned that Tsunade is back, but why is she taking on my student?" Minato frowned a bit at, but then nodded his head.

"Let me answer the second question first; there has been some discussion that a war may be approaching; if not a ninja war, then at least a war between the nations themselves. Now, the main problem is that though we are fielding a lot of teams at the moment, many of them have little actual combat experience. To bring down the costs of such a program, I had hoped on having Tsunade start up a medic ninja initiative, like the one proposed during the last war." Anko nodded in memory; Orochimaru had even been in favor of the suggestion, a rare instance at that point in time that Anko remembered him agreeing with the last Senju.

"As such, with Tsunade's return, I asked her to begin the program immediately. She will, tomorrow morning, take charge of Sakura, Hinata, and Ino, the three girls on the squads for each of the specialty teams I created. Since those teams are the most valuable, and have the most assets that will be invested in them, it was vitally important to start their training immediately." Anko nodded; truthfully, the snake ninja had planned on teaching more medical jutsu to Sakura; the girl already knew how to address minor cuts and bruises, and could at least set bones and heal burns. Additional training would have improved her more, but Anko had focused on her skills as a combat ninja rather than as a medical ninja.

"Still, that shouldn't have taken so much time to hammer out; what was the other issue?" Anko glued her eyes to him, trying to make out some hint at what he was concealing.

"There was talk of renegotiating some of the village treaties; nothing major, but one that was pushed forward was the Hokage continuation insurance protocol." Anko frowned heavily at that news. The protocol had been lifted for Anko and Minato, in a special agreement due to her past trauma with Orochimaru. That they were bringing it back meant they trusted the stability of her relationship with Minato, but it still would be a headache.

"How long do we have?" Anko already dreaded the question as she saw the look in his eyes dim a bit.

"You must be pregnant before the end of the Chuunin exams." Anko quavered a bit at that, biting her lip and turning away from him.

"I hate this pressure they can put on us! How did Sarutobi deal with this sort of stress?" Anko felt herself holding onto Minato, her anger at the council growing. "I don't want to have kids Minato; I'd be a horrible parent, and I don't know how Naruto would react to having a younger sibling." Anko felt Minato place his hand over hers, comforting her.

"I don't know either; personally, I fought as hard as I could against it, but there were too many who said that it was necessary by custom of the land of fire's culture." Anko grimaced and leaned into him a bit more. "What you are saying also has merit; when Asuma was old enough, Sarutobi revealed to him that he was born through the forced nature of this edict; that's what initially led to the fight between the two of them that caused him to leave when he was younger." Anko let out a long sigh, and brought her hand up to her face.

"At least we will get to keep practicing…" Minato laughed at her joke lightly, kissing her and pulling the sheets over the two of them.

xXxXxXx

7 Days Before Departure

Naruto blearily blinked open his eyes. The sunlight blazed into the room, and Naruto covered his eyes with his hand to blot out the obnoxious intrusion. Stretching noisily, Naruto noticed Sasuke's futon was already put away, and the Uchiha heir absent. Rubbing his hair awkwardly, Naruto pulled on his ninja gear, fastening his headband around his waist as a sash. Naruto checked over his explosive scrolls and weapons as he moved into the kitchen, absently fiddling with a fastening here or there. As he rounded the corner, he was distracted by the sound of a very familiar perverted giggling, and a shock of white hair.

"I don't care if you are a legendary Sannin! No one gets to flirt with my cousin Natsuki like that!" The next instant, Naruto found himself flat on his back as an oppressive weight slammed him into the ground, giggling the entire time.

"Geez, bit harsh for a kid your age, don't you think Sasuke-kun?" The weight lifted itself, and Naruto found himself staring into the face of a disgruntled Jiraiya. "And just what were you doing peeking around corners, huh? Didn't anyone tell you that people don't like peepers and eavesdroppers?" Naruto shook his head from side to side, and gave the man his most outraged look ever.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black! You're always flirting, peeping, and eavesdropping on everything!" Jiraiya swelled up to his full height, giving his best condescending glare to Naruto's complaints.

"Yes, but I do those things for a living! What do you think a spy master is paid to do, huh?" Naruto's outrage turned to dull disbelief as he looked the man over warily.

"What's a spymaster doing in Konoha then? The last I heard, there's a bit of a war brewing…shouldn't you be out getting information?" Jiraiya flinched a bit at this; the kid was always just a bit too sharp for his own good some times.

"The thing is, I've been doing a lot of work lately, and need to lie low for a bit. And since I was in the area, I figured I could stop in and give my godson a bit of one on one training, eh?" Naruto still gave him a disbelieving look, but nodded his head in agreement.

"What about the others though? If I'm training with you, who will they be getting help from?" Jiraiya just smiled and shook his head.

"You still care about making sure everyone gets an equal shot at things, don't you?" Naruto blanched a bit, and cast his gaze to the side, a frown forming over his face. 'Guess that one was a bit too close to home…the training has probably really been pushing Sakura…'

A thin but graceful arm slid around Jiraiya's neck, and a perverted grin began to adorn his features. "Yeah, Naruto is really a nice guy, you know! He's always very helpful, and kind to all of the Uchiha clan, just like Jiraiya-sama." Jiraiya's perverted grin was back in full force as he turned to face the full-bodied, black haired bombshell behind him. She had a black training gi that was cut low, as well as two weapon scrolls on her back and pouches on both legs. Her entire outfit was black, and her eyes were perfect agates of darkness.

Jiraiya turned to the girl, grabbing her arms and attempting to pull her close to him. "I always am kind, and gentle too, Natsuki-chan." Without even looking, the world class pervert leaned in for a kiss, only for smoke to appear at the last second. The next second followed the loudest yell that Naruto had ever heard from the Sage. "A CACTUS? Where did you get a cactus, Natsuki-san?" Jiraiya had the most pained expression out of his face as needles covered his lips and cheeks, standing up in every direction.

"See Sasuke, I can take care of myself just fine. Don't worry yourself about it, little cousin." Sasuke grumbled a bit here and there as the girl ruffled his hair lightly before walking toward the door. "And don't forget the meeting tonight, ok?" Sasuke called back a reply to her, but his eyes were still fixed on Jiraiya whose eyes, while pulling out all the needles on his face, were glued to Natsuki's retreating hips.

"Are you done ogling my cousin now?" Jiraiya shot the Uchiha a dirty look but shrugged.

"To answer your earlier question Naruto, Sasuke will be training with Kakashi, you'll be working with me, and Sakura will be training with Tsunade. I actually will be working with both you and Yugito for the next week on a couple of things." Jiraiya smiled as he saw Naruto's grin grow a bit; the kid liked the older Jinchuuriki, especially since she never gave him any special treatment for being the Hokage or the village container.

"Great, so I have to wait for the guy who's habitually lazy to show up and train me…" Sasuke looked a bit displeased about the arrangement, but stiffened suddenly when a hand clapped him on the shoulder.

"Well, if you think I'm so lazy, I'll just make sure not to give you any breaks for the whole week, right?" Sasuke turned a trepidatious eye up towards the man next to him, sighing when he caught sight of the infamous eye-smile. "Come on, we've got a bit of a run if we're going to get to the training area I've got in mind…" Sasuke frowned further at this, but nodded in acknowledgement and picked his bag up. "Don't worry; we'll still make it back in time for your meeting with Natsuki tonight." Sasuke stiffened at that, and shot a quick jab at Kakashi who vanished in an instant, chuckling the whole time.

"You too Naruto, we've got to meet up with Sakura, and head off to the hospital quickly. Yugito's going to meet us at the gate with her, I think." Naruto nodded, grabbing a slice of toast as he left the kitchen. When the two excited the door, Naruto saw an impatient Sakura and Yugito waiting at the edge of the compound. Sprinting, Naruto raced to meet the impatient women.

xXxXxXx

Orochimaru paced the length of the laboratory, going over the results in his mind again and again. 'Where is Kabuto! I need those results!' The Sannin was not a patient man; being forced to wait on information regarding his next host tended to put the unbalanced genius in a murderous mood. 'Fortunately for him, he's the one subordinate that I cannot murder outright; at least, not yet.' There were other hosts available to Orochimaru if Kimimaru did not pan out, but Orochimaru was not a large fan of them. With the recent hawkish nature of Konoha, Orochimaru had been forced to seek other locales to gain his kekkei genkai recipients from; Hidden Mist's recent embracing of all of the kekkei genkai weilders did not help matters either. For the time being, Orochimaru was having to make do with breeding shinobi on his grounds, turning his laboratories and training halls into breeding halls for women sold into his service.

'So far though, we've had a couple of interesting developments. Who would have known that a derivative of the Byakugan, with Genjutsu abilities, could survive in such a remote area as the Country of Fangs.' Thought that particular subject was rather young, the DNA that he had been able to harvest was quite useful for his future intentions. 'Still, without stabilizing Kimimaru, I will not be able to successfully invade and destroy Takigakure before the Chuunin Exams…I may have to force the invasion after the attack on Konoha.' A missive bumped Orochimaru as he pored over some of the notes on his table, desperately trying to find the cure to the disease that was plaguing the best candidate that he had discovered.

'Ah yes, the news from Mizugakure…how most convenient that there are growing tensions with Kirigakure. If things proceed as I believe they will, it might be possible to isolate the mighty Konoha, perhaps with the aid of Yukigakure and the Land of Iron…' A knock at the laboratory door distracted Orochimaru, the snake sannin narrowing his eyes as he hissed an order to enter.

A silver haired genin, with glasses and a thin leather vest covering a basic black and grey shinobi uniform entered the room. He was smiling, and extending a leaflet of papers toward Orochimaru, despite the oppressive murderous feeling emanating from the more experienced warrior. "Whatever you are offering had better be good Kabuto…I've been going over plans and research in here for the better part of an hour." The man gestured with the papers again, clearing his throat once to speak.

"I found a cure to the problem of Kimimaru, though we will have to use some of the help from those Yukigakure ninja you have captured. One of the programs that used his own chakra to burn the disease away slowly over time with his own chakra can be used with the addition of the chakra armor to enhance the effects." Orochimaru pored over the proposed research, his eyes widening in approval, and a slim smile forming over his lips.

"Kabuto…I am indeed impressed. You even found a way to work in the living metal designs that I had proposed. Kidomaru will be happy to be of service in that regard, I am sure." Orochimaru chuckled slightly as he looked over the plans; it was audacious, but they had the time and materials to bring the research to fruition before the Chuunin exams. 'I'll get the chance to assault Konoha and steal a Jinchuuriki from my competitors' right before the assault on Takigakure…and when they attack Takigakure, I'll incite further anger at them through the destruction of one of the hidden villages.' The chuckle that escaped the snake lord made Kabuto glance warily at his employer; such outbursts of happiness were usually not good signs for his future livelihood.

"The Tsuchikage has also arrived, Lord Orochimaru. They were announced shortly after I completed the plans you have there." The words had an electrifying effect on the excited leader; in an instant, papers were being swept up and put aside, the room tidied into a presentable stateroom.

"Send him in, in five minutes. I need to clean house here a little bit, and then I can receive the old bag of bones safely." Orochimaru was so swept up in moving things aside; trying to focus on the coming meeting while plans for his next host swam through his head. The distraction was so great that he missed the clarification from Kabuto the first time. As the door was about to close, Orochimaru's hand shot out and grabbed Kabuto around the scruff of his neck. "What did you say about the Tsuchikage?" Kabuto kept his breathing in control as he stared into the eyes of the highly functioning sociopath.

"The Tsuchikage is currently a she…not a he. The old man gave his title up to his older granddaughter, Kurotsuchi." Orochimaru nodded once at this; the girl was hot-headed and inexperienced, something the snake lord could possibly leverage. However, that also meant that having to wait would put the girl on edge, something the snake lord desperately wanted to prevent during a diplomatic negotiation.

"Send her in now; her seeing me working will give me a few points to sell, rather than with Oonoki, who would stand on tradition." Kabuto nodded and left the room, clearing his throat. In a few moments, Orochimaru heard the door open and close smoothly, and leaning up from the details on the living armor, turned his best smile towards the young Kage in the room across from him. "Kurotsuchi-san, how wonderful to see you again after all these years…" The lady across from him had aged from the young teen he remembered; she was now a full-bodied woman, a full bosom and fine hips suggesting herself to any interested suitor. Sadly, the experimentation had long since taken the desire from Orochimaru, so now he could only appreciate beauty from an artistic perspective.

"And yet, you seem as handsome as ever, Lord Orochimaru." Kurotsuchi seemed to sport a light blush, drawing a low chuckle from the man.

"While I appreciate the compliment, flattery is not a very good persuasive tactic with me, Kurotsuchi-san. Shall we instead move to the discussion table? I have several interesting measures to suggest to you for our upcoming collaborations…" Kurotsuchi nodded, approaching the table with a blush again towards the snake summoner.

"There was quite a lot of trouble arranging my grandfather's retirement; however, now that he is out of power, we have effectively stripped his council members of privileges as well. From this year forward, I hold absolute sway on the village's decisions." Orochimaru nodded in agreement, while inwardly he was smiling.

'The fool doesn't realize that without checks on her own power, her avarice will lead her into greater trouble…the destruction of your village will be only too easy…' Orochimaru directed her attention to the missive he had received regarding a planned attack on Takigakure, as well as methods for impersonating and framing the organization of the masked man for the destruction of the village. "There will be a window of opportunity approaching. During the next month, through contracts with some of the former Land of Dragonfly ninja, we can infiltrate Konoha with warriors from Tsuchigakure. During that time, I can create a front with the merchants from the land of rice patties; by sending lots of them to the Chuunin Exams, with seemingly valid identification, we can throw off the investigation of Konoha, and get them to focus on the people coming in to the village, rather than developments on the village's borders." Kurotsuchi looked over the battle plans, a small smile drawing over her lips.

"And just what will Otogakure be contributing? The large number of merchants seems to be rather a hindrance than a help to a military attack…" Orochimaru chuckled slightly, and gave the girl his most wicked smile.

"The merchant families of the Land of Rice Paddies all have children, taken under my care, that have been trained in the ninja arts. The adults, though not trained since children, have had experimentation performed upon them to better aid them in conflict. Though they might not have the same effectiveness as regular genin, they can still put up a valiant fight." Orochimaru also pointed to developments outside the village limits. "On top of that, the destruction of Takigakure, while aided by the Akatsuki, will give a number of my troops needed combat experience. Soon after that, they will, with the aid of the villages Hero Water, secured by a trusted spy of my own choosing, be able to assault and damage the village walls heavily; here, here, and here." As Orochimaru tapped to the points on the map, Kurotsuchi felt her smile widen. "The other locations will be left up to your trustworthy Jinchuuriki to defeat and decimate." Kurotsuchi nodded, a predatory fire lighting in her eyes.

"Yes, with that we should be able to pay that bastard back…he'll rue the day he stole my father from me, and my mother. I will make sure that the Fourth Hokage suffers a long and painful death." Turning to Orochimaru, the girl offered him a congratulatory smile. "Since you have been so open with me, I'll let you in on a little secret." The girl pulled back her arm sleeve, showing a tattoo that Orochimaru instantly recognized. "Roshi managed to pass the seal on without dying, so I also have come to control the beast; for now, all of the other nations believe he is still missing, but with this, there will be a great level of destructive power we can level at the village of that bastard." Orochimaru tried to resist the coming chuckle, and almost succeeded.

'How perfect is this…not only will I get to steal the seven, and the five and possibly two tailed beasts, but I might even get the fourth as well…today truly must be my lucky day.' Calming his features slightly, the snake man straightened and extended his hand to the woman beside him. "I know the details are a bit premature, but shall we shake on the agreement in general for now?" Kurotsuchi smiled and gripped his extended palm.

"The only thing we have yet to decide is how to deal with Suna…" Orochimaru waved her off, a small smile playing across his features.

"I have already put motions in play to take care of that…with any luck, I will be able to infiltrate and kill the Kazekage before long. I'm hoping to stage it a week before the attack on Takigakure; one of my new techniques gives me a physical form in two places at once!" Orochimaru smiled at his procedure; it had taken some work, but he had realized how to split his soul using the impure world resurrection, allowing the creation of a perfect doppelganger. With the addition of the appropriate snake skin, the simulacrum could take on any roll for him anywhere, and transmit the experiences back to him at a moment's notice.

"Then I will leave that part of the attack in your capable hands." Kurotsuchi smiled up at the snake sannin, her eyes full of admiration and desire.

xXxXxXx

"Alright you two, listen up; we're going to be meeting an old friend of mine at the hospital, so be on your best behavior." Jiraiya ruffled the hair of the two genin, Sakura chirruping happily and Naruto grumbling slightly.

"If she's as old as you are, then why do we have to be nice? Surely she's been around a brat like me before?" Jiraiya winced a bit at the slight at his age, but gave Naruto a serious look.

"You know how I like being called perverted?" Naruto nodded at the man. "Well, my friend hates being called old to an equal degree…" Naruto let his eyes widen a bit before slamming his signature scowl back into place.

"Yeah, well, if the boot fits, then I'm calling her an old hag to her face." Jiraiya shook his head in bemusement.

"Trust me, the boot will not seem to fit when you meet her, kiddo. But, if you insist on digging your own grave, go ahead and call her that." Sakura rolled her eyes at her blonde teammate.

"So, who is this old teammate we are going to be meeting, Jiraiya-sama?" Jiraiya smiled at the girl, puffing out his chest at the honorific.

"See that blockhead, that's how a youngster shows respect to a war hero!" Naruto rolled his eyes and Yugito shook her head in embarrassment at the man's antics. "Well, we're going to meet your third sensei, Sakura, the great legendary Tsunade!" Sakura felt her eyes go wide, and she blinked a couple of times. Jiraiya was gloating a bit as he thought the girl was happy; it took him a moment to notice the impending cloud of anger that was rolling off the girl.

"I get trained by Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja, who uses insane methods of combat training to keep me on par with the son of a hokage and the scion of the Uchiha, Anko Mitarashi, wife of the Hokage and possibly the only verifiably more insane teacher than him who likes chasing me with snakes!" The girl grabbed the front of Jiraiya's shirt, who was surprised when the small youth picked him up easily. "And then, when I thought I couldn't be given any more insane levels of torture, I'm given a third workload with the Legendary Sucker! The only woman to ever devise a training regimen that the Third Hokage disapproved!" Jiraiya realized he was suddenly and very quickly being hurled towards a tree, and with a reaction befitting the ninja of his station, he quickly replaced himself with a nearby object and landed next to the girl.

'She already has the herculean strength of Tsunade' Sparing a glance at his godson, the man grimaced in memory. 'What are you thinking Minato, pushing her far at a young age while learning the snake arts? You're liable to create another Orochimaru before we know it…and Naruto and Sasuke could both follow if you're not careful.' Dusting himself off, the man looked at the visibly shaking girl who was glowing with restrained chakra. Naruto was comforting her a bit as tears streaked down her face, and Yugito was looking on with a blank face. "Hey, what's with the tears pinky? The sucker's only going to be giving you medical training, not taking on an apprentice. Besides, many of the girls from each team are being chosen to participate in medic training with her." Naruto looked up at this, and shushed him with a look before the blonde could mouth off. 'Damn it Naruto, stop being so observant. Life will go better for you if you play a cat, you know?'

"So, I'm not the only one, and this isn't going to be in excess of the other training we have already?" The girl spoke with an even voice to her credit, and had regained composure of herself, despite leaning on Naruto.

"Nah, we have the scion of the Hyuuga and the Yamanaka waiting for you there. Along with some of your other friends from the ninja academy." Sakura nodded at this, looking up to fix him with an apologetic look.

"Sorry about that; it's just that Anko and Kakashi have been pushing me really hard to keep up with this knucklehead and Sasuke." Naruto frowned a bit at being called a knucklehead, but she ribbed him slightly to show she was joking. Jiraiya waved her off as the group proceeded towards the Konoha hospital. Before they even made it onto the premises, Jiraiya was pulling out his notebook and scribbling with a slight giggle. Sakura looked about to investigate, but Naruto pulled her aside as they entered the hospital.

"There you are you lousy pervert! Did you bring my newest students!" Jiraiya blanched a bit at the angry tone; apparently Tsunade was not taking well to coming out of retirement. The rest of the group was a bit shocked at the woman's appearance. She could not have been older than thirty, and had luscious blonde hair in a single ponytail that fell to her back. She had a slim waist, and well-rounded hips, along with attractive and soft brown eyes set on a comely face. The biggest point of attraction though was currently starring Naruto right in the face.

"Shit, you said she looked old, not that she had giant knockers!" Jiraiya felt his feeling of dread grow a thousand over as he looked at his newest student. "She's a dead ringer; why did you go and say she was an old friend of yours?" 'He's dead…before I can even train him…maybe Minato will let me off the hook if she kills him.'

The vibe emanating from the tall woman was that of a severely agitated and bemused predator. "So, a blonde knucklehead, eh? I hope you have had a good life, blockhead, because the only one who can call me old and comment on my chest is Jiraiya." Naruto gulped slightly, but faced her down anyways.

"Tch, yeah, I bet those things aren't even real! You're definitely hiding your age because you're way to vain to admit those have gone all saggy by now!" Jiraiya reached forward to clamp a hand over the kid's mouth, but he ducked out of the way. "And another thing, I'm not a knucklehead, I'm Naruto Namikaze, so you better learn to get used to the way I talk; in another few years I'll be running this joint!" Tsunade blinked at this, before she began to chuckle, and then gave in to grabbing her sides as she nearly fell over laughing.

"Oh my god, you are exactly like her…hook line and sinker." Naruto froze at the comment a bit, but the woman seemed to have forgotten him entirely. "Ah…okay, so that's who you are…I'll let you get away with that once in memory of Kushina, but next time you're dead." The woman put an arm around a thoroughly confused Sakura and pulled her away. "You can come pick her up in a week blondie." Sakura squeaked a bit as she was led away by the iron grip of the head medic. The hospital around them, which had been deathly quiet for the yelling match, seemed to suddenly get back to work. Sensing the plummeting mood of his charge, Jiraiya placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and led him away.

xXxXxXx

"Oh, hey forehead, good to see you here!" Ino commented brightly to Sakura as she poured over some medical books while looking slightly green from the work she was doing on a dying fish.

"Good to see you too, pig. Hinata, how are you?" The quiet girl nodded back politely, her own features seemingly unfazed by the task she was being put through.

"Well, since you three seem to know one another, it will make training you in a group much easier." Tsunade stepped into the room followed by a brown haired assistant. "Now, as I am very busy with a number of tasks at the moment, Shizune will be overseeing your training until you can heal one of these fish." Tsunade kept talking as she led Sakura to her own post. "I expect you all to be finished before the end of the day; disappoint me, and I will find extra work for you so you can catch up." The woman had paid no attention as Sakura sat in front of her project, and was almost back to the door when she stopped for a moment. "If you finish early, tell Shizune, and I'll see if I can find time for some more personal training."

Sakura's voice called out and stopped Tsunade at the door. "I'm finished." The blonde whirled around to see the pinkette, barely there for over a minute, have a flopping and gasping healthy fish in her hands. "I already did this training a while back, and have some experience dealing with minor injuries." Tsunade felt her like for the girl grow a bit.

"Well then, let's see if I can't get at least one of you three up to medic status. Shizune, you will train these two for the rest of the week. Sakura, you're on rounds with me." Sakura felt her heart plummet a little as she the Legend's eyes narrowed in a threatening manner. "Welcome to hell."

xXxXxXx

"So, why am I training with you instead of with my parents, Kakashi-sensei?" Kakashi smiled at Sasuke, ruffling his hair slightly as the two walked through training ground eleven.

"You're working with me to learn one or two of my personal favorite moves. If you haven't noticed, I've begun drafting all of you into specific roles for combat missions." Sasuke nodded slightly at this, trying to see where the man was headed. "Sakura has become quite skilled in healing, genjutsu, and chakra control, and poison creation, making her ideal as an interrogator and distance support member. You have been focused on learning combat skills, ones particularly useful for engaging a large number of combatants, making you are front line warrior." Sasuke nodded at this, grinning a bit; he liked that role, as it gave him the most time to be in the heat of battle. "Naruto has been focused on learning sealing, multiple shadow clone creation, and wind attacks that cause widespread damage, making him our distraction and destruction asset. I complete the ensemble, along with Anko, as we are both specialized in assassination style combat and fighting." Sasuke nodded at the description; it gave their team the focus of taking on high profile targets, including daimyo and lords.

"Then you are here to teach me techniques to possibly take over your assassination role if an enemy decides to send out a single lethal combatant instead of an army of lesser ones, right?" Kakashi eye smiled at the boy, nodding once.

"There are four techniques you are going to be learning this week, and one that I hope will bring the Hatake and Uchiha clan's a little closer." Sasuke frowned a bit at this in confusion, but felt his eyes fly open as the masked instructor pulled a scroll out of his back pocket. While it was not a large scroll, Sasuke recognized it immediately. "I am going to have you sign the dog summoning scroll; it will allow you to have tracking and information gathering available to you, that way if our group is ever separated we will be able to quickly relocate and regroup." Sasuke nodded silently, not wanting to ruin the moment by saying something improper.

"Thank you. I will do my best to uphold the honor of the dog contract." Kakashi smiled at him, as he unfurled the scroll, motioning for Sasuke to sign in a certain spot.

"Now then, the three other tricks I'll be giving you are meant to be used in combination. The first is a fire jutsu that I learned a while back; I believe you recently attained the ability to memorize a jutsu combination, correct?" Sasuke nodded and closed his eyes briefly before reopening them with the Sharingan blazing. "Good, then I'll only need to show you each of these once and then you can practice." Kakashi's hand flashed through a number of seals, ending with first the Tiger and then the Dragon seal. "Conflagration" Flames came from Kakashi's cupped hands as he first exhaled onto them and then turned the palms upward and out. The flames raced across the landscape, and Sasuke watched in fascination as Kakashi pulled his hands apart, while keeping his fingers in the same pose. The movement caused the flame to disperse and move in separate directions, following the mans will. "As you can see, this allows you to have a fire attack that you can shift directions quickly for…it's only limitation is that it must remain in contact with the ground. However, it is still useful for ringing in an opponent, and allowing for you to create separation from elements you'd rather not fight. To lock the fire in place" Kakashi returned his hands to their original position, before shifting into the Tiger seal. "Just return to a tiger seal, and push some chakra through the movement." Sasuke watched as the formerly shifting walls of flame rooted in place, before rising in height slightly. "The more you put in at the end, the higher the wall." Sasuke nodded, eager to get that one under way.

"Don't get too excited, I still have two more tricks for you to get down over the next week." Sasuke smirked, already liking the potential this little trick had. "The next one is my other signature move; however, at your current state, I would say you can only pull it off twice, and that's if you have not used conflagration. Together, I would give you one shot with each." Sasuke grimaced slightly at the news. While it was true that he could use a number of techniques during combat, most were C or D rank in complexity and chakra requirements. These were both definitely A-ranked techniques. "Alright, by the frown on your face I guess you get your limitations…" at the nod, Kakashi smiled slightly. "This next one is an assassination move, reserved only for enemy combatants, and never used on a fellow shinobi of the leaf village." This time, Kakashi flashed through three seals, Ox, Rabbit, and Monkey, before pulling his hands away as lightning gathered in his palms. The screech reminded Sasuke of trees of birds during a typhoon. Kakashi raised his forehead protector, revealing his Sharingan to Sasuke. Charging quickly, Kakashi blasted his hand through the tree. As Sasuke watched, the attack grew in power as the man moved faster before impacting. "This move is only to be used when you have the chakra to utilize your Sharingan as well, and only once you can use the interceptor ability. Without the ability to interpret the intent behind an opponent's movements, the attack leaves you too far exposed." Sasuke nodded at this, and looked at the damaged caused by the attack. The tree had a hole about a foot deep, and the trunk was marred by the damage; bark scattered on the ground from the impact was at least five feet from the tree. 'That technique is what a real shinobi would use in combat…' Sasuke felt his blood quickening in anticipation.

"The last trick is one that complements the chidori perfectly. Watch my flash step closely, alright?" Sasuke nodded, but had to blink as the man appeared directly in front of them. "What was different?" Sasuke smiled up at him, a predatory glint catching Kakashi off-guard. 'I'm going to have to up their psych-evaluation schedules…this training is having effects on them.'

"There was lightning chakra in your system when you activated it…you moved almost faster than the Sharingan could catch, and way before I could move to dodge…" Kakashi smiled at his student, but inside felt his worry grow. 'I hope we are doing what is right Minato…'

xXxXxXx

"Uncle-Jiraiya, why do we have to go all the way out here!" Naruto's whines grated on the old man, but he put up with the brat as he walked along the road. The kid was studying some advanced seal work from what he had seen earlier, but he needed to improve and branch out; explosive seal users were a dime a dozen in Jiraiya's opinion.

"Shut up, blockhead! If anyone saw the awesome training I'll be putting you through, they'd be way to jealous to actually understand and would never talk to you again! That's why we gotta head out here to train!" The real reason was slightly different, but might as well let the kid have some sort of reason for the distancing. Truth was, even with Minato's assurances, no one liked to feel the Kyuubi's chakra out and about. 'But he's going to need that age sooner or later…' Turning to face the blonde, Jiraiya felt his eyes bug out a bit at the sight of a hundred Naruto's following him, all with the identical scroll out and reading along.

"Oi, kid! You can't be using that many at once, hasn't Kakashi taught you anything?" Naruto and the army following him looked up at him and smiled.

"Sure he has, but I figured out something even better! You can give ranks within Shadow Clone armies!" Jiraiya stood non-plussed for a second or two. Rolling his eyes, Naruto turned to ten of the closest copies. "Alright guys, show him a round up…" The group of clones behind groaned and organized into a line of ten. In an instant, the line began to disappear, heading from back to front; as it did, each clone ahead of it would nod at something or other before passing itself on to the one in front of it. "See, this way, all of the knowledge that is useful, while as little of the stress as necessary gets passed on." When it got to the last line of ten, Naruto grimaced in anticipation. "Though this part hurts no matter what…" All of the clones gave the boy a friendly look of compassion before they burst into smoke and the kid clutched painfully at his head. Still, from what Jiraiya could see, it was far less pain than someone dispelling a hundred clones should have to face.

"Alright, I guess that is fairly useful…keep that up for the seals. For now, we're far enough out that we can begin some other training. First things first, I want to see what you can do with calling out the foxes chakra…" Jiraiya watched the boy frown slightly before he closed his fists at his sides and closed his eyes. Jiraiya felt his own skin crawl slightly as the youth in front of him grew darker whisker marks, nails bit into his hands, and fangs protruded from his lips. "So, you can still keep control before a physical manifestation then?" Naruto's eyes opened, shocking the trained warrior a bit.

"Yeah, and I can even push it to here…" The voice was guttural and low, alien on the small frame. The eyes were also blood shot and red, the one slit running down the center. That was as to nothing as the chakra around the boy went from being orange tinted to a deep magma red, bubbling as it encased the youth. Naruto grimaced slightly, and winced as the chakra spread over him. The malevolence of it was enough to push Jiraiya back a bit. 'Hard to believe a pipsqueak like him can do that…Still, looks like it is still a bit difficult to control.'

"Alright kid, bring it down a notch. We're going to work on you honing that powers use in other techniques during this week. Now, I have to special signature moves that your dad and I call our claims to fame. While you can get mine down in no time I bet, your dad's is going to be impossible to get down in a week." Jiraiya pulled a scroll from his back as Naruto pushed the chakra back to normal levels. He also noticed the boy was panting slightly, and burns which were rapidly healing covered his body. 'The youki is too great for him to handle at this point…'

"This is the toad summoning contract! And for the next week, you will be practicing calling on the fox's chakra and summoning with it!" Naruto nodded, gulping slightly as color started to come back into his face.

"In the meantime, give me one or two of you clones to practice some of your dad's work. If you're able to get this all down in a week, I'll even give you some hints at how to make chakra tattoos for you and your teammates!" Naruto smiled a bit, some of the pep coming back to him.

"You're on, Uncle Pervert! I'll get these down in no time!" Jiraiya smiled; training kids was sure rewarding. 'I hope you're watching sensei, because the kid you gave your life for is going to turn out just fine.'

xXxXxXx

Sasuke entered the family grounds as dusk was beginning to fall. 'I'm nearly late, but I couldn't care less…getting to learn those techniques today was definitely worth it.' Sasuke took his seat near the head of the table as more people filed into the meeting room. "Father, what is the discussion to be about tonight?" Fugaku turned and gave his son a serious face; during clan gatherings, it was tantamount that one present a face of iron to the rest of the clan, especially since the inclusion of so many ninja from Kumo. Still, Sasuke had grown adept enough at reading the positive signs of happiness hidden beneath the mask.

"We are to discuss the impending political marriage of your cousin Natsuki, as well as the news about the coming war, and the possible ascension of Tsunade to the position of Hokage-Apparent." Sasuke was not surprised by the first two; he had taken note of his cousin's antics earlier in the day, and realized that she was not stopping by the head family house for no reason. Still, the last one left an odd taste in his mouth. 'I thought that Kakashi-sensei was to be the next in line…'

The meeting room was soon filed to the brim, as members of each of the larger or more prosperous Uchiha branches arrived. Though only members of the branch family that had left the internal clan had survived the great purge several years ago, their return to the fold was marked by an increased amount of activity within the compound. To top it off, several of the youth that had survived the attack, due to Itachi's intervention, had aged just enough to head some of the new branch families. This had caused a bit of a power struggle for the position of the top family within the Uchiha clan.

"Do you know why they are choosing a slightly older ninja to take over the Hokage position? Surely there are those who are younger that would be able to hold the mantle?" Sasuke phrased his question delicately, trying to ascertain some hidden meaning he was missing.

"The Hokage is being a bit forced in this matter; the civilian parts of the council, while they adore the man for coming from their ranks and rising so high, has been a bit inclined to disagree with some of the more militaristic choices our leader has made. Beyond that, he shows little respect for tradition, or the culture of the land of fire, and so is writing problems for himself here and there. It is the opinion of the civilian portion of the council that more traditional choice for the Godaime be made, and they have enough sway to push for that agenda unfortunately." Sasuke felt comprehension strike him rather harshly at the words traditional; Tsunade was a senju, and though Kakashi was a powerful ninja in his own right, he came from a disgraced clan, one that had little political edge currently.

"What of Natsuki's marriage then? She is a rare wind type in the clan, and we could use her to draw in suitors from one of the more prestigious areas…" Fugaku smiled at his son secretly; the boy tried to keep the edge out of his voice, but he still was obviously not pleased with the action.

"Natsuki has actually come to us, declaring that she has sought out an agreeable matching of her own design apparently. She will more than likely get to keep her choice, if things go accordingly." Sasuke smiled at this, slightly relieved; he didn't know why, but Natsuki mattered a great deal to him. If she was getting to choose her future, than he would support it no matter what it was. Seeing as the group had arrived and everyone had settled in, Fugaku rose and called the meeting to order. Sasuke noticed his mother was not present, and missed the report of the minutes as he scanned the room. 'Strange…mom's not one to miss the family gatherings.' Shrugging it off, Sasuke managed to tune into the conversations to hear the words that would change the rest of the night for him.

"…and so, it has come to our attention that there are elements of the Uchiha clan, particularly in the branch areas, who wish to push out the elements of the Inuzuka and Hyuuga from the Police Force in order to regain the position that the Uchiha once held within the village. The Hyuuga are failed versions of the Sharingan, and should have no position in such a prestigious role…the Inuzuka are barely better than breeding mutts, and should be unallowed to take part in ninja activities as such." The voice was one of the elders of the returned branch members; some of the families had long ago left the Uchiha, managing to hide away in one location or another in Hi no Kuni, and then had returned to sew the old ways back into the clan. Sasuke felt his blood boil, thinking of his friends from Team Asuma.

"Satori, you are out of line." Sasuke had not even realized he had stood up, and was not aware that his Sharingan were blazing at full strength. His father moved to seat him, but the youth threw his grip for a second and gazed intently at the man. "The Hyuuga are a respectable and diverse family and the Inuzuka are loyal without a fault. We should be looking to reach out to them, not shut them away as you would intend." A different elder chose to speak up to the impudent youth at this point, drawing Sasuke's gaze.

"Even if what you say is true, it goes against the Way of the Uchiha. We do not ally ourselves willingly or permanently to anyone!" Sasuke's glare made the man back down before it after his outburst, but he remained standing.

"I see…that must be why it was so easy for a worm like you to abandon the clan so easily." The hissed response from the crowd told Sasuke that he had struck a nerve, and the man seated himself in shame, turning away from the scion's gaze. Seeing the moment was right, Fugaku rose again to place his hand on the shoulder of his son.

"Sasuke is right. I will not condone breaking off relations with the Hyuuga or Inuzuka. In fact, I would recommend we find ways to better integrate them into the clan. I must agree that any and all members who harbor such thoughts abandon them, or come talk to me in person to work out your differences." Satori sat down in his seat, and Fugaku flipped the page on the paper in front of him. "The next order of business is addressing the clan's response to the choice of successor being Tsunade. The civilian council managed to vote as a block, and with the help of some of the lesser clans, acted to force the choice away from Hatake Kakashi as we had hoped." There were grumbles in the crowd, but to avoid a repeat appearance, Fugaku cleared his throat loudly and addressed the hall. "I will not tolerate suggestions of sanctions against the supporting clans or trading guilds…" Surprisingly, a member from the Kiri-ninja households spoke up.

"There should be an effort made to have more Shinobi merchants introduced to the market. Especially since certain skills and abilities of the Kiri-ninja are accessible again, we can begin to bring in profit for the Uchiha clan and raise our stature further in the village."

Fugaku nodded at the suggestion, and upon seeing the crowd generally agree, he proceeded to the last item on the list. "There will be a committee drawn up to investigate areas of expertise then. Our last item is the proposed marriage of Natsuki Uchiha to a member outside of the clan. Children would be raised within the clan, but would not be expected as part of the agreement due to the age of the male suitor involved." That drew Sasuke's looks a bit; why would Natsuki have chosen an older male…she was only seventeen herself. "The marriage choice is also very beneficial to the clan and will raise our political value highly if everything goes well." One of the older members coughed lightly at this, turning to fix Fugaku with a look.

"Will the elder male be introduced into the clan, or will he be choosing to remain separate?" Fugaku grimaced at this; it was the one part of the deal that could threaten the agreement.

"He has chosen to remain separate from the Uchiha clan, though is not asking Natsuki to leave herself." The older gentleman coughed again, and Fugaku knew he did not like where the conversation was headed.

"Will his techniques be introduced to the Uchiha?" Fugaku grimaced yet again, and the elder knew he had hit pay dirt.

"No…there will be no sharing of techniques between the clans because of the fact that the shinobi, in his age, has passed the techniques on to another clan." The old man harrumphed and Fugaku knew that many of the other houses were beginning to doubt the arrangement.

"I am confused then to how this will enhance our standing…unless you mean to tell me that Natsuki has wooed a suitor from one of the founding clans, like Asuma Sarutobi?" Fugaku smiled at this, deciding that stature would have to be his trump card.

"Actually, it's better than that…the man that Natsuki has fallen for is Jiraiya Senju." The room was quiet as the news was absorbed. As he turned to this left, he saw a shell-shocked Sasuke who was giving Fugaku a very questioning look. 'I'll explain it all later, Sasuke, I promise.'

Sasuke for his part was too shocked to really process anything. 'I guess that she really does like the idiot-type afterall…oh well.'

xXxXxXx

5 Days before the Trip

Naruto felt himself slip on the wet ground as he dodged another attack of the Sannin. It was tiring training against a legend, and Naruto was realizing just how far he still had to go to become Hokage like his father. 'Still, I have caught him off-guard a couple of times with the redirection blades.' Naruto dodged again and again as the man followed up with kicks and punches at an incredible pace. Throwing a kunai to get some distance, Naruto watched as the 'Wild Man' caught it between his teeth. 'Jeez, he's as crazy as those market vendors!'

_Naruto was walking with Temari in the capital of fire country, taking in the sites with her. He was only ten years old, and she was blossoming into a young woman early at fourteen. The kid often felt weird around her, and knew she was poking fun at him the couple of times she beat him at the festival games. Still, it was nice to be by her side, and hear her talk, rather than the letters the two often sent each other. The night wore on with the two of them playing game after game; Temari won a large number of them, her ninja training starting before Naruto's did. The skills definitely paid off, even though the market vendors continued to cheat from time to time. They also seemed to be completely crazy, as they repeatedly used massive harmers that weighed only a pound to move a twenty pound metal ball. If it wasn't for the Kyuubi's enhanced strength, Naruto never would have won the giant teddy bear for the Sand Princess. Still, it might have meant more if the guy had not insisted on telling Naruto's 'older sister' to come visit when her 'baby brother' was at home. _

_ "Naruto…I've enjoyed spending time with you tonight. I really think in a couple of years, you'll grow up to be quiet handsome." Naruto blushed as the girl kissed his cheek lightly, right as the fireworks started. Temari sighed at his cute face. While he was a good guy, he was still so young. But she had time enough to wait._

The fireworks from that night played over in Naruto's head as a punch from Jiraiya caught him off-guard, adding to his own fireworks.

xXxXxXx

3 Days Before the Trip

"Shihara, there you are! I've been looking for you for ages! Where did you run off to?" A girl with brown hair, around shoulder length with small braids in the back came up to a crouched over teen. The girl had on a blue top covering a teenager's frame, and she seemed to be holding fans with senbon hidden inside of them as she did so. She had basic black boots, and a ninja pouch strapped to her back hip. Said hips were shapely for her age, and covered by a simple skirt and shorts combination of black. Her eyes were surprisingly green and bored into the man in front of her.

He was tall, with black hair and a plain black and white trench coat. His hair ended in a ponytail behind his head, and his eyes seemed focused on the strange blade that lay at his feet. It had a sunburst pattern guard, ending in several sharp points, with a three foot blade of solid blue crystal. It seemed to be giving off an aura of sadness as the man lifted it, and the girl blanched a bit at the unusual feeling she had around the artifact. Forming some hand seals, the item was quickly shoved into a pocket dimension seal, relieving the girl of her worries.

"Sorry Mitsuko, it was just too interesting a find…it's not every day a reconnaissance mission uncovers an ancient and hidden base, you know?" Pulling his headband from his head, the youth wiped some sweat away, despite the bandages wrapped around his head, holding his bangs back. The fishnets on his arms were similarly sweat stained, as was his blue undershirt. "Maybe we should head back home, the village of shadows is sure a lot cooler than this Mizu country, huh?" Mitsuko just sighed at her erstwhile teammate. It was always such a pain when they went on missions together.

"Yeah, but here at least we get to do some shopping. I mean, you never realize how small Kagegakure is until you leave, you know? We don't even have these Chuunin ranks that these other places have, you know?" Shihara nodded in agreement, trying to not smile inwardly at the direction of the conversation.

"Want to be the first Chuunin of our village?" Mitsuko shot the boy a surprised look, but shrugged.

"Yeah, why not? Besides, it's being held in Konoha, and I heard that village is huge! We definitely will get some strong fights there, you know?" Mitsuko turned and gave the boy a harsh look. "But no running off like last time we were in fire country! I swear, it took me a month to hunt you down last time!" Shihara rubbed the back of his head foolishly as the pair whisked off into the night.

xXxXxXx

1 Day Before the Trip

The Mizukage seemed to be sitting perfectly still in her high-backed chair, though if one looked closely, her eyes were pitch as night. Inside her mind, the masked warrior felt himself shrink away as his containers host railed against him, the form of lava whirling around the lady as it flung repeatedly against his defense. "You are foolish to think you can best a Sharingan user in a mental landscape, but I will let you try…" Inwardly though, the man was sweating as the woman said nothing but increased her attack. Water began to mix with the raging heat, and the enigma was forced to flee as he dodged another assault of steam and lava. 'At least she hasn't figured out how to control the steam element yet…I may still have a chance to corrupt her completely.'

Wresting control of the situation, the masked man placed her yet again under a genjutsu before exiting her mental landscape. Upon emerging, he realized that he had been stalled several hours by the conflict. As the man grasped the scroll in front of him though, he smiled slightly. Orochimaru was still planning his assault, and there was a chance to grab many of the Jinchuuriki in one moment of glory. So long as his current form lasted long enough to start the war, things would proceed just fine.

xXxXxXx

There we go! Holy crap, this one was huge and got everything started off just right I feel. Okay, next chapter, the training ends and the mission begins. What psychological torment I have in mind for the kids will be decided then.


	6. Chapter 6

ALRIGHT! Here we go, the pace is picking up from here on out!

I OWN NOTHING BUT THE ORIGINAL STUFF!

xXxXxXx

First Day of the Mission: 45 Days to the Chuunin Exams Beginning

Naruto flickered to the side, dodging the blazing flames that surrounded Yugito's arm. Behind him, the backlash of heat scorched the earth, leaving an acrid smell to coat the air. Turning from the rapid movement, Naruto felt the wind begin to gather around his fists. The barest of breezes swelled to a quick gale, and the winds were begging to be unleashed. Unfortunately, large gouts of flame and oil came racing towards him from a disfigured frog man just as the wind began to take on a spherical shape.

"You're still too slow at gathering the wind chakra…you need to speed up the process blockhead." A man with warts, two protrusions on his shoulders and webbed hands sent a volley of wind projectiles towards Naruto.

Grimacing, Naruto flickered out of the path of the destruction again, feeling his limbs scream from the enhanced movement. 'I've been doing nothing but dodge during the damn 'spar'! Then again, I am fighting a legendary ninja and a jinchuuriki that has perfect control…' Naruto felt the wind gather again, urging it on quicker as he watched Yugito, surrounded in an aura of black flame, charge the legendary wild man. 'Good…keep distracting him for a moment more…' A whirring sound, similar to the howl of a tornado, caused Naruto to glance absently at his hand. Upon seeing a large globe covering his closed fist and arm, the boy had a small grin come over his face. Pushing the chakra through his limbs, Naruto appeared behind Jiraiya, watching as the man turned in perfect time to dodge the incoming attack and have it smash into Yugito. Before Naruto could regret his aim, the girl was replaced with a log, getting a further growl out of the boy.

"Damn it! After all that, I still can't even land a hit on either of you!" Jiraiya chuckled, as did the two shapes on his shoulder.

"Don't get bent out of shape brat! You're fighting Jiraiya, and a very experienced young lady over there." Said young lady walked out of the shadows, brushing dirt and twigs from her hair from the log that she had replaced with in the woods. Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders, and her harsh azure stare bored into the frogs even as she wore a friendly frown on her face.

"Said experienced young lady also did not score a single hit on the wart monster…" Jiraiya now frowned fully at the girl, giving her a pained expression. The frogs however, were croaking up a storm.

"Wart monster, I like that name…among Toads, that's quite a compliment Jiraiya!" Jiraiya groaned and looked at the male toad in disgust.

"Pa, you can't go saying things like that, you know? How will I ever convince the ladies to spend time with me now, huh?" The old toad just continued to laugh and even swatted Jiraiya lightly on the face for his uppityness.

"Now Jiraiya, you know that Kanako would love it if you came around more often! She would even kiss you for all of those warts of yours!" The happy female came from his other shoulder, putting a hand out to high five her husband around the sage's head.

"Ma, not you too! Gah, I better just face facts and settle down with some nice plain girl, no one will want to stay with me at this rate." The two summons chirruped happily at the man before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Naruto was still chuckling lightly to himself, and Yugito had the slimmest of smirks on her face. "Alright brat, cut it with the giggles." Naruto formed up in an instant, his focused eyes landing on Jiraiya and reminding him instantly of Minato. "That wind sphere was good, and from the damage I can see on the stump properly formed. Still, you needed us to make an opening for you; keep working on your nature manipulation, as the spacial manipulation seems to be coming rather quickly for you." Naruto nodded solemnly before adopting a quizzical look on his face.

"So, how did you know my attack was about to arrive?" Jiraiya smiled at the blonde before pulling a scroll out from within his sleeves.

"This explains the basis of it. It's a restriction based seal, that actually lessens the restrictions on sensing the chakra of those around. When it is developed to the highest potential, you should be able to detect anything and everything that moves inside a given sphere of observance." Naruto eye's widened in appreciation as the blonde slipped the scroll into one of the many pouches that hung on the bandoleer across his chest. 'With the explosive scrolls, sealed weapons, and serious outfit, that kid is really shaping up rather well.' Naruto had the bandoleer stuffed full of various equipment scrolls, and had his short sleeved black shirt and long pants with flame print covering the surface. Underneath, mesh armor and arm guards glinted in the morning sun. The shinobi sandals were also a surprise, made of a similar black material with a metal click that gave away a steel base. However, the full gloves were a new addition to his outfit. Already, they were marked up with cuts from the wind jutsu he had been practicing, bringing a smile to the elder ninja's face. 'He trains as hard as I did in sealing and elemental skills…you really will become powerful Naruto.' Yugito moved up to his side, distracting Jiraiya.

"He needs to go Jiraiya. The team is supposed to be leaving today. We can't hold onto him anymore." Jiraiya nodded, and turned to leave with the blonde. Naruto turned and left as well, his mind already playing over the fight and trying to see where he could have found a better opening.

"I wonder what Tsunade has been teaching your friend Naruto." Jiraiya mused as the group headed back into the village, the sounds of morning breakfast already being served.

xXxXxXx

Sakura leaned back against the post at the gate to the village, her legs already crumpled and knees pulled up to her chest. The girl was trying to hold her head up, but it kept falling down onto her knees. 'Dad wouldn't let me get any sleep last night, celebrating about his recent promotion and trip to the capital. Still, I'm happy that he's at last getting a chance to move into a larger role for the village.' Sakura smiled thinking of her parents, happy that her friendship with Naruto and Sasuke had matured into such a nice benefit for the small merchant family. 'He even mentioned about getting protection from one of the council members…things are really looking up I guess.' Sakura, despite her happiness though, soon fell asleep and was awakened gently by a hand on her shoulder. Blinking her eyes blearily, the girl glanced up to see Hinata Hyuuga, wearing a breathtaking white kimono with the Hyuuga family crest printed across the front.

"Here, I have some soldier pills…I know we're not supposed to use them as pick-me-ups, but Tsunade taught us that it was always necessary for a medic to be alert." Sakura nodded, smiling up at the younger girl. Biting down on some, she felt some of her strength come back to her. As she did, she gave a quick glance over Hinata's frame. There were supple curves hidden by the kimono, showing that she was really developing into quite the exquisite girl. 'Still, she hides it all, so what's the point?' Standing up, Sakura pulled some water out of her pack and began to take a drink or two while she sat on the post.

"So, what did Tsunade-sama cover with you during your training?" Hinata smiled softly at the question, adjusting her own pack on her shoulders.

"Nothing too much; lots of medical knowledge that was covered quickly, and then reviewed like crazy, on top of chakra control practice and some of the basics of repairing personal muscle damage." Hinata blushed a bit deeply, coughing for a second. "She also taught us the basics of her genjutsu appearance." Sakura blushed as well, remembering how the change made the two girls look. Getting a wicked idea though, Sakura began to chuckle to herself slightly.

"Want to play a prank on our teammates?" Hinata was not too sure, but she could have sworn that the mischievous smirk on Sakura's face was eerily similar to Naruto's.

xXxXxXx

Sasuke rolled his shoulders, adjusting the weight on his back. The pack was exceedingly heavy, as Kakashi refused to let Sasuke seal the items into weightless scrolls.

"I know the weight is a little difficult to get used to, but the more I have you running around with added weight, the more I can develop your speed. Which you know is essential for those techniques you learned." Sasuke sighed as he glanced over at his lazy teacher. While the man had an entire week to teach Sasuke techniques, he had decided to teach him only four.

'Just because my Sharingan learns the technique instantly though doesn't mean I'm proficient with it…that much he had right, and is a slight issue I need to bring up with my parents about their training methods.' Sasuke fingered his outfit lightly, liking the feel of the overcoat covered in Sharingan. The small symbols were chosen by Sakura, as she used some of her genjutsu abilities through them whenever she was nearby. The fact that her chakra control had become powerful enough to cast genjutsu's using something she did not physically touch though sent shivers down Sasuke's spine. 'That girl already has a few too many tricks up her sleeve…' Still, Sasuke was glad that she was on his team.

"We better hurry up otherwise the others are going to accuse us of being late." Sasuke smirked at his teacher, catching the glint in his eyes. It was the challenge to a chakra enhanced race to the meeting spot; in a blur and crackle of electricity, the two warriors sped off into the distance.

xXxXxXx

Jiraiya rounded the corner leading to the great gates of Konoha. Truth be told, the man was rather worried for Naruto stepping outside of the village. The kid had spent the better part of his young life ensconced safely from harm; who knew what was waiting for him on the other side! 'Still, I did my best to prepare him, so he should be fine. It's only a C-rank too, and his dad sent plenty of extra firepower for the trip, just in case.' Jiraiya's musings however were cut off as he rounded the corner and felt his jaw drop to the ground.

There, standing at the entrance to the village, was the first girl that had ever giving Tsunade a run for her money in the looks department. She was young looking, but had long legs and great curves, and the biggest knockers the pervert had ever seen. She even had beautiful pink hair that flowed down the side of her face and ended just above the bottom of her bountiful bosom. Said bosom was kept tight inside a green kimono that ended at her thighs, with matching hakama pants. Mesh armor could be seen covering all of the potentially scandalous locations, and her feet seemed to be decked out in full combat boots. Still, combined with the sexy curves and hips, with medicine pouches on either one to add to the sway, and the diva was a bombshell waiting to happen. So distracted was the great ninja that he did not notice Yugito and Naruto's sigh of exasperation, or hear Kakashi and Sasuke land in the clearing. Sasuke and Kakashi were both a little perplexed and flustered by the image. Both of them had their Sharingan active at the time, so they could tell it was a genjutsu, but it still didn't stop either of them from enjoying the site of their female teammate.

"OI! BILLBOARD CHEST! Stop giving these lechers a peep show, would ya?" Naruto's voice rang out across the assembly areas, and the illusion dropped to show a very irate female Sakura.

"Naruto! Don't you ever call me that again! You got that!" The girl had closed the distance between them impressively quickly, but Naruto still managed to evade the girl, getting her to chase him a bit before she tackled him to the ground.

"Hey, I call's it as I see it, okay? Your chest is as flat as your head, just like your personality!" Sakura growled and her fists began to glow blue. Naruto realized that the last comment might have been over the line as he scrambled to get away.

"Naruto. Sakura. Cut it out, we're in the middle of the village. Or do you want to let the whole village know what Sakura plans to make you into if you don't stop, Naruto?" Naruto turned to give Sasuke his brief attention as Sakura visibly calmed a little bit.

"Oh yeah, and what's the big threat that Sakura can throw at me, huh?" Naruto heard the growl begin again behind him and prepared to run.

"Well, with all of the medical knowledge I'm sure she picked up from Tsunade, I bet she knows how to professionally remove a prick like you…permanently." Naruto's face paled appreciatively.

"She wouldn't?" Sasuke chuckled lightly at his friends fear.

"Yep, she's probably capable now of giving you the proper name of dickless…"Naruto's face became a reaction of anger at the Uchiha and fear for the slightly chuckling Sakura.

"He's right you know…we covered amputation in the field this week…just keep giving me reasons, Naruto…" Jiraiya stood over to the side with Yugito and Kakashi, who were all chuckling at the antics. Hinata seemed to be looking off in one of the side directions, and her Byakugan was running.

"Well, it looks like you're about to be on your way soon. Hope that the mission goes well for you Kakashi, you have one hell of a dysfunctional team there." Kakashi sighed as he pulled out his trustworthy orange book.

"Yeah, but their named after the original team that spawned them, which is yours, Jiraiya. Team Seven is always going to be an interesting lot it seems." Jiraiya chuckled lightly, though some of the mirth had gone out of him.

"Let's hope the dysfunctional behavior is where the similarities end. I'll be seeing you after the mission I guess." Kakashi nodded as the man turned to leave, Yugito trailing silently behind him. At the same time, Anko and Asuma, with Shino and Kiba in tow rounded the corner bringing the group to its grand total of nine. Nodding absently while slipping his book away, Kakashi made his way over to the large group of genin and jounin.

"Alright, as we're all here, why don't we head over to the transportation post, and I'll explain a bit more about our first mission outside the village…" Kakashi's eye smile did wonders to calm the boisterous group. "Right, well, the Hokage has tasked us basically with escorting Naruto here to the final resting place of many of the Uzumaki heirs. That includes bringing his mother's remains along with him." Kakashi watched as the group stiffened a bit. Anko and Naruto were the only ones who did not react, apparently aware of the purpose of the mission from the beginning. "We are also being sent to retrieve certain artifacts that were sealed away into the resting place by the previous visit, where Kushina Uzumaki returned the remains of Mito Uzumaki. At the time, Kushina felt that the value of the items, were they to remain in Konohagakure during the Third Shinobi War, would have been unduly threatened." Again, Kakashi paused to glean the responses from the group. Anko seemed to be reacting well to the news, nodding her head as she obviously worked out the timing of the attacks. Naruto was downcast, obviously thinking on his mother, and what she meant to him. Sasuke and Sakura were watching the blonde, looks of concern evident in both of their eyes. Hinata and Kiba just seemed to wear the same expression of interest and slight sadness, similar to their teacher Asuma. Shino was the hardest to read; no reaction came through the sunglasses the boy wore, and his large trench coat hid everything else from view.

"Now, who here knows about the transportation posts of Konohagakure?" Kakashi smiled as Naruto and Sakura raised their hands. They were a fairly well-kept secret from the younger generation of ninja, but it was not surprising that the most dedicated book-worm, and the son of the inventor would be aware of them. "Well then, why don't you fill us in about them, Naruto, Sakura." Both students looked at the other quizzically. Sakura stepped forward first, giving Naruto a hesitant glare.

"The transportation posts are outposts set up by the Fourth Hokage and Yuhi Kurenai. They are set up so that Konoha ninja can teleport to any of the given locations quickly and easily while remaining inside the land of fire. They are also protected from view by the use of shielding genjutsu, and are trapped so that anyone not carrying the proper permission seal that comes within a given radius will be caught in a devastating explosion that will make it unusable. This is a failsafe to prevent foreign shinobi from learning about the underlying techniques in the Hirashin technique." Kakashi turned to Naruto, who merely nodded his head in agreement.

"She's got it right sensei. Finally that big forehead of hers is good for something after all." Naruto chuckled before Sakura turned around to give him her cheeriest smile possible.

"It even remembers how to chemically castrate you too…and with what Anko's taught me about making a poison tasteless, I'm sure I could figure out how to slip it into your favorite ramen unnoticed." Naruto shut his trap immediately, giving the girl his coldest stare ever.

"You would threaten ramen?" Naruto regarded the girl carefully as she shrugged non-chalantly.

"It's your choice, dickless." Naruto let a frown pull on his face before he turned away from the girl in a huff. Anko chuckled at the interaction, and Asuma and his team all had the decency to roll their eyes in embarrassment.

"Aside from the team bickering, Sakura is absolutely right. As such, we are going to go get the seal for the nearest transportation post to our mission location. I believe that should be the Valley of the End, right Naruto?" Naruto nodded in confirmation, as the group headed over to the post near the entrance to the village.

"Isn't the Valley of the End near the Land of Grass and the Land of Rice Fields? Those are pretty far from the ocean if I remember correctly?" Kakashi nodded to Asuma. Anko flanked Kakashi from the other side as the kids walked in front, catching up from a week of intensive training.

"The final burial spot is not anywhere near Uzushiogakure, though when the village was standing there was a dimensional door that could be opened to that spot if I remember correctly…" Asuma looked surprised at Anko's explanation.

"I thought you didn't know a whole lot about the Uzumaki family, Anko?" Anko shrugged and kept walking. After a moment of tense silence, she coughed and continued in a lower tone.

"Kushina was a great mentor. She taught me a lot about different things with regards to her clan, especially when Naruto was young and I was getting over Orochimaru's betrayal." Both men stiffened a bit at the mention of the man's name. It was a well-known fact that that name was considered bad luck by the village at large. Even mentioning the legend's recent exploits was enough to make others cross the street quickly.

"Use the kunai to prick your fingers, and then sign here please." The officious and bored tone behind the desk gave away Kotetsu and Izumi, sitting there with stacks of paper and small steal blocks that were covered in sealing diagrams.

"So, you two drew the short straw for the transportation team, huh?" the two teenage boys nodded back at them, one with a bandage covering his face as spiky hair resisted his headbands at control. The other boy was sitting fairly calmly off to the side, already moving through the stacks of paperwork and sealing them into the proper transport scrolls. Kakashi chuckled as he noted the drawn looks on both of their faces; the only reason for this post to be tiring was if a lot of ninja were being sent outside the village. "Anything happening on the border with rice and grass we should know about?" The spiky haired guy shrugged, and watched as his partner stepped out of the building to prepare the transport room.

"There have been reports of an increasing skirmish between grass and rice…apparently rice has contracted some new ninja, ones daring enough to claim themselves as a new ninja village." Kakashi raised his eyebrows at that. "Though it's rather rare for a wandering band to amass that much power, this one seems to have quite the staying power. They've managed to make contacts within the land of snow, and have even trained their ninja to fairly high standards, rivaling even Konoha's." A chill crept down the experienced ninja's spine; why did his team missions always seem to involve extra hassle.

"We'll be sure to be careful then. Thanks for the heads up Kotetsu." Izumi walked in at that moment, and the two shared a joint nod. The group silently followed the group towards a plain wooden shack. Inside, there was a white room with a complex seal pattern covering the floor. It spiraled in every direction, crossing the floor and repeating itself on the sealing. After a moment or two everyone was gathered into the room. "While inside the sealing circle, everyone must try to bring their chakra into alignment with each other as much as possible." Kakashi turned a knowing glance to Naruto. The boy sighed and pulled out a powerful chakra suppression seal and applied it to his arm. After a moment, the seal began to glow with the chakra it was effectively restraining. "There we go, we should all be able to match easily now…" Kotetsu and Izumi took up positions on the left and right of the group. In an instant, they felt themselves being pulled, as if through a sieve, before emerging in front of two giant statues. The only thing that told them that they had left the non-descript walls of the former shack. A simple white door, bereft of a doorknob, was in the side of the wall.

"It's hard to believe we're really outside the village already…" Naruto looked in awe at his father's sealing work. It had always slightly interested him, his father's technique. But having experienced it once, he realized the true potential in the ability. There was literally only the slightest noise when the technique was performed, and yet transmission could occur over vast distances in an instant. "I'm going to have to get that technique down one of these days…" Kakashi chuckled at his young student.

"Naruto, your family might not be part of the Uchiha, but that technique can definitely match the power of the Sharingan. I think I might have to take your advice and start really studying seal work." Naruto shot Sasuke a cocky grin.

"Yeah right, like you can keep up with the greatness of the Namikaze family!" Anko bopped him on the head for his insolence, earning her whining from the young blonde.

"How many times have I taught you, it's better to be underestimated, than overestimated? Learn some basic humility, brat!" Anko gave the boy a harsh glare, getting chuckles from both Sakura and Sasuke. Kakashi shook his head and pulled out his map instead.

"Alright, look closely here everyone. We are currently near the border with the land of rice. We are going to need to move quickly, and enter the demilitarized zone of the land of wheat." Kakashi pointed to several points on the map, indicating the desired border crossing point. "Once we have crossed the border inspection, we are to move with as little notice as possible to prevent detection. For that reason, we will be traveling in two groups. One will be the scouting group, and will consist of Anko, Asuma, and his team. The second will be the combat and assistance group, and will be staffed solely by Team Seven." Kakashi paused to pull out several masks from his pack. "We also are going to be wearing masks to hide our identities while on this mission. The masks will prevent identification and will change the hair color of the wearer. For that reason, we will be using them, with their animal code names, from this point forth in the mission." Kakashi watched in pride as the genin's eyes took on hardened edges. 'They really are ready for this; guess Minato was right that a harsh boot-camp would help weed out the real performers'

Naruto fidgeted as he looked over the map. There was a lot of distance to cross on the map, but it was not as if they were traveling at the breakneck pace used when going to the waterfall village. "We're going to be going without fire for the next few days, aren't we?" His question brought surprised looks from Sakura and Sasuke. Kakashi's confirming nod had the group sighing in response.

"I'll be sending along one of my summons with the scouting group. Should anything happen, tell Pakkun to return to me, and we will be there as soon as possible." Kakashi made a few hand signs, and a shirt wearing pug appeared in front of the group.

"Yo. Who am I being sent with?" Kakashi pointed to Anko and Asuma. "A snake lady and a smoker…great smells to get used to…" Anko smirked at the dog, but shook her head as she began to walk away. Asuma chuckled, and led his team off with them, only to notice the pug and Akamaru begin to bark happily to each other.

Kiba grinned as the group was leaving, turning to give Naruto and the rest of the group a goodbye wave. "See you guys in a few days! Naruto, you and Sasuke better be quick to come to our fights! Otherwise, Shino and I'll finish everyone off before you get there!" Kiba's loud voice rang across the clearing, making the security conscious Jonin wince in professionalistic pain.

xXxXxXx

Kidomaru felt his eyes widen appreciatively as he took in the scene at the bottom of the valley. Several ninja had seemingly appeared out of thin air, with no sound to accompany their arrival. It had taken everything in the sound ninja's training to keep his presence masked as his chakra attempted to spike several times in fear. Channeling the excess chakra, the man forced his armored secretions to take on the color of the rock face of Madara Uchiha more completely.

The ninja all were from the leaf village and several of them were high ranked bingo book entries. The one he was most surprised to see was Kakashi Hatake; trained by both the fourth hokage and Jiraiya of the Sannin, the man was considered to be on the level of the legendary ninja himself. As they stood there gawking, Kidomaru heard one of the brats mention a name that had his brain running at full speed.

'Namikaze…that brat is the son of the fourth hokage…his ransom would be immense!' Several of the youth also attracted his eye as he watched; there was a Hyuuga and an Aburame present, and if he wasn't much mistaken, that was an Uchiha. Memorizing the masks and the faces they belonged to as they were pulled out, Kidomaru was beginning to salivate at the prospect of the reward Orochimaru would have waiting for this information.

When the confirmation shout from a short, brown haired boy echoed across the valley, Kidomaru began to smile wickedly. 'Not only an Uchiha, but Orochimaru's pet project, Sasuke Uchiha. Today is truly my lucky day.'

xXxXxXx

"Lucky number seven, huh? We really must be lucky or something, right Kakuzu?" Hidan grinned as he sharpened his scythe, whistling merely as he began to carve another mark into the body on the ground in front of him. Kakuzu looked up absentmindedly from the fire he was cooking over, preparing food for dinner.

"We'd be lucky if your damned ritual ended before the food is done. I'd like to eat and plan our upcoming attack if you don't mind?" Hidan shrugged; the current ritual had mostly run its course. The figure before him was not even enjoying the pain anymore, merely whimpering as he cut into her beautiful body. Deciding that seven victims were enough for one day, Hidan sliced her fully from stomach to stern, ensuring a slow and painful death. Why deny such a beauty the ecstasy of a slow demise?

"Sorry, I'm in too good of a mood to care right now; we have confirmation that Takigakure is unprepared, that Orochimaru is in the area and will undoubtedly assist in the attack, and that our victim, the bitch who escaped me last time, is sick from old age at last!" Hidan paused to marvel in the coppery smell of his corpses. "On top of all that, the last several days we've gotten to slaughter some of the advance party groups that Takigakure has been sending out. You can't top a week like!" Hidan flopped next to the fire, looking uncomfortable for a moment as he noticed the strange glimmer of sadness in Kakuzu's eyes. "You're not starting to worry about attacking your old home, are you?" The man across from Hidan stiffened slightly, returning a hard glare.

"While some part of me might be remiss, I for one am not going to go off half-cocked and screw up the mission. There will be no time for long ritual's tomorrow; we need to be ready to move quickly between targets and slay as many as possible. Our goal is to disguise the kidnapping of Fuu Heiki with an attack on the village. We need to make sure that our attack starts around the time that Sasori's puppet clones assault Fuu's enclosure." Kakuzu pointed to several spots on the map, marking them with charcoal. "These are the spots that Deidara is going to damage. The ones closest to the demilitarized zone are there for Orochimaru's usage; no doubt the bastard will think that he is surprisingly lucky when his covertly placed explosive seals are giving a 'boost'." Hidan chuckled at the image of carnage, but his eyes tracked over the map attentively.

"So, we are going to enter from the south side, while Deidara focuses on aerial strikes to eliminate the effectiveness of guerilla tactics that the enemy might try to employ." Kakuzu nodded as Hidan looked over the map. "Your job is to destroy the great tree, with aid from Deidara, while I assault and kill as many of the weapons makers as possible." Kakuzu nodded, and Hidan chuckled. "Well, even if we don't have time for a long ritual, I can still have a moving experience. I'll call up all of the departed souls we've slain over the last several days, and bring those to bear on the village." Kakuzu merely shrugged and doled out the food on the plate.

"Just make sure your moving experience involves moving your ass a little faster with those rituals…" A raised middle finger drew a chuckle from the ex-Takigakure ninja as the two shared a dinner meal.

xXxXxXx

Day 5 of the mission: 41 days until the Chuunin Exam

A crackle came to life as Naruto pressed the communicator collar at his neck. "Fox to Dog, come in Dog."

"Dog here. What is the situation, Fox?" Naruto grinned at the efficiency of the radio communicators. 'Man, these things are awesome to use.'

"We have successfully crossed the border behind you. We will be proceeding as planned towards the agreed upon rendezvous point." Naruto waited as the crackle filled the air after the transmission.

"Roger that. Be advised, we have picked up increased movement from unknown elements in the area. Expect engagements at some point. Dog out." Naruto grimaced at that slightly. So far the group had been lucky in avoiding detection. Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke shared a grim look with the youth as well.

"Don't worry. All of you are as prepared as you can be for combat. Though we do not know the reason for this advanced state of security, I am sure we will be able to handle any situation that arises." Kakashi watched all of his students calm a bit, though a small bit of fear was settling in his stomach. 'The border guards let us pass far too easily, and to make matters worse, they seemed unaware of unknown elements moving in their border. That smacks of either negligence or collusion, and I'm not sure which to fear more.'

A sudden twig snap alerted Kakashi to someone in their nearby surroundings. Kakashi and the others quickly pulled out camouflage tarps, blending into the surrounding scenery. Crushing their chakra signals as low as they could go, the four watched as a large group of burly men landed in the canopy below.

"Shit, we lost them. We knew they were there and were sitting ducks! How did we lose sight of them?" One man seemed to be restraining the leash on a snapping dogs, jowls as large as any of the kids heads.

"Why are you surprised, shit-for-brains? We're tracking ninja here, you expect them to not be able to disappear suddenly?" Another yelled at his comrade, pulling out a long, curved sword from his belt and tilting it into the reflection of the sun.

Kakashi felt his stomach drop at that; reflections were one of the key way to give away a camouflage clock. 'These men are slightly trained in hunting ninja…but what do they know about us?'

"Shut up and find them. We need to ascertain their threat level and report as soon as possible." A calm, even voice seeped through the group; it was ice, commanding and absolute.

'So, they don't know who they are up against…that much can be highly useful…the commanding voice though, it sounds like one who is familiar with the workings of ninja groups.' Kakashi was busily scanning the group, though he noticed the pained looks of restraint on his student's face. 'None of them want to fight, and I don't blame them…travel the last few days has been rather harsh…still if we're lucky, they won't notice us…' Kakashi began to formulate battle strategies. At first glance, there seemed to be about thirty or so targets arrayed before him, meaning that if they lacked actual ninja training, the fight could be ended rather quickly.

"Tsuruko, there are four of them in the trees over there. One of them has a rather large chakra signal and it is making the other signatures easier to discern." Sakura and Sasuke shot Naruto consoling looks, and Kakashi grimaced inwardly. "We can probably take them, as the signatures seem to suggest a jonin and a genin squad." This voice was insidiously chipper, though it held a syrupy quality in every word.

"Fine. But leave the jonin to me. Neither you nor Komuro are ready for that sort of challenge yet." The commanding voice was back again, exacting and harsh.

"Works for me…let's get this party started…" A harsh voice, bitter and excited broke through the group. This time, Kakashi managed to identify the source of the statement. There was a young man, wielding two kurigamas, who began to slash one way, then the next, his arms blurring with each cut. "Wind Style: Swift Murder" all of the slashes became whirring spots in the air, and Kakashi dropped his camouflage to grab his students, moving quickly out of the way.

'So much for lacking ninja training…' Kakashi trailed off as he checked that all of the ANBU masks were secured in place. "Stick together…with any luck, you'll be able to move through the crowd rather quickly. Try to keep some alive for questioning if you can." The three nodded back at him, and Kakashi sighed before removing his mask, and jumping back into the clearing. "Now then, which one of you said you wanted to fight the jonin?" The crushing amount of chakra that Kakashi brought to bear made the majority of the crowd flinch in reaction.

"That would be me." A girl, hardly more than twenty five, stepped out of the crowd. She was dressed in blue jeans, a green sweat shirt, and had body mesh glinting from underneath her baggy ensemble. There was a definite martial artists grace to her movements though, and she was staring at him with blue eyes that framed an aquiline face, sharpened further by the bowl cut of her blonde hair. Kakashi absently noted that she was rather tall, matching him in height. She twirled one kunai on her finger, and gave Kakashi a frigid stare for the record books. On her waist was a scratched and polished forehead protector, missing the ensignia for any village. "Though, having Kakashi Hatake as an opponent might be a bit much for me. Renna, you will aid me. Komuro should not have any trouble dealing with the rest of this squad."

"Sure, it would be my pleasure." This female was bit shorter, coming up to the shoulders of the taller leader. She had short auburn hair as well, and had several pouches covering her waist. A flowing kimono or pink and red covered the girl from head to toe, though once more mesh armor hinted through in certain areas. Her eyes were a dull brown, lifelessly contrasting harshly with the girl's upbeat and positive tone of voice.

"Glad to see I'm finally getting some recognition around here…" Now that Kakashi got a look at the boy, he was fairly young; brown hair, spiky in every direction, reminded Kakashi of Kiba rather than a troublesome enemy. Ninja pants and a simple black leather jacket completed the ensemble for the boy, who was grinning rather lustfully at Sakura. "Once I get rid of the two guys, I can even have some time with another pretty girl…"

Sakura stiffened at that, but a calming hand on her shoulder from Naruto made her relax a bit. Naruto began to gather his chakra, and as he did, the groups suddenly burst into motion. Sasuke was down in front of Komuro, his blade blazing and crackling with both lightning and fire. Komuro wreathed his kurigama in wind energy, and the boys began to trade blows, gouts of flame erupting in one spot and the other. Sakura weaved into the edge of the forests surrounding them, her chakra beginning to spike as she prepared a genjutsu. The group of large, muscular men began to charge at their position, only to be stopped by a wall of Naruto's.

"You lot, aren't going anywhere." Naruto's outfit began to flicker dangerously, wind energy wrapping itself around his arms and legs. The movements made the flames on his clothes seem to shimmer in the afternoon light. "Clone Battalion Technique: Wind Blade Decimation" as one, the clones moved through several rapid hand seals, and edges and gusts of wind raced toward the group of men. Naruto raised his eyes in appreciation as all of them stopped their charge and slammed their hands into the earth, erecting an earthen wall.

"So, you at least have some training in the ninja arts…good, wouldn't want this to be too boring…" Naruto pulled out four scrolls from his bandoleer. "But let's see how good your dodging skills are…" Naruto unfurled the scrolls and explosive notes went everywhere, scattering and landing on the other side of the wall. Naruto heard the shouts, but fought down the bile in his throat as the first of the explosions started. As the walls began to fall, Naruto and his clones readied another salvo of wind edges.

When the wall came down, Naruto fired the wind edges immediately. However, the moment after he did, he saw the carnage that was developing and grimaced internally. 'Shit…over half of them are dead…I killed 12 of them in that one attack…' Naruto watched as his blades ripped into the unprepared group, slicing many of them apart. One escaped and made a beeline for Sakura. Just as he was about to go after her, he heard a shout from Sasuke's direction.

"Damn it, you sure have some skill with that blade of yours kid. Too bad for you, my kurigama are faster…" Komuro snickered as his blows began to find ways around the Uchiha's guard. Already, several long gashes covered his arms and legs, and his eyes were stinging as sweat poured down into them. "God, I really can't wait to cut those eyes of yours out…freakish red things they are."

Sasuke took the moment of opportunity and began to draw on the small fires that were scattered around the area. 'If I could just get an opening, I'd be fine…but his combat prowess is insane. There are less openings than if I was fighting Kakashi, and his control over wind is impeccable.' Grunting in appreciation, the Uchiha sensed the arrival of Naruto. "So, you took care of the bandits rather handily…" Naruto shrugged, pulling his own sword from his back.

"Well, one managed to escape and go after Sakura, but she'll be fine. She can handle some lone rouges I'm willing to bet. You seemed like you could use the aid a bit more." Sasuke smirked at his friend, beginning to call the flames from the surrounding area to his blade.

"Don't forget I'm here!" Komuro was suddenly in front of Naruto, one scythe moving in to slash while the second began a follow up movement. Naruto's blade also whirred with wind and the two boys found themselves pushed apart and back. "Shit…another wind user. Rare around these parts. Guess I'll have to take you a bit more seriously, you little monster." The word had an immediate effect on Naruto, who slumped forward as if punched. "That's what you are, you know? You decimated a squad of almost thirty men in an instant." Komuro noticed the boy's posture and grinned evilly. "Don't let it get you down though; us wind user's, we're the worst monsters on the battlefield. Villages fear us far and wide, and if you're lucky, we get the most kills in combat. We get to be the worst monsters on the battlefield."

The sound of chirping birds drew Komuro's attention away from his taunting. The other boy had lightning dancing in his palms, and his eyes had a murderous glint similar to his own. "You should make sure not to forget that I'm here either…" Sasuke charged and Komuro readied his scythes.

'Shit…not going to be able to stop that in time…Sorry Tsuruko, but I'll have to use them…' Calming his mind, the boy began to focus on his inner chakra system. Just as Sasuke was about to deliver a blow, Komuro ducked quickly and punched the earth, making a crater that sent the attack wide and into a boulder. Komuro watched in slight fear as the blow pierced a slab of earth easily as large as a man. The energy coursing through his system helped to relieve the fear, and replace it once more with battle lust.

"You two are in trouble now…Second Gate, Gate of Healing. Release." Chakra whirled ominously around Komuro, wavering in heat. In an instant, he was in front of Sasuke; the boy could see the moves coming, but did not have time to react as the Kurigama tore a long slash from his shoulder to his torso. In another instant, he was in front of Naruto who, using the majority of his wind chakra, managed to stop the first blow, earning a smile from Komuro.

"See, I told you wind users get to have the most fun…" Naruto grit his teeth and blasted a large amount of wind at the boy, throwing him back. Turning to give a look at Sasuke, he noticed Sakura's arrival, her hands glowing green as she healed the Uchiha.

"Stop forgetting I'm here!" The punch from Komuro sent the boy threw a tree, and before he had a moment to react the scythe was plunging for his chest. Reacting instinctively, Naruto sucked air into his lungs and shot an air bullet to deflect the blow. So much power was behind the swing that it just changed the direction to lodge painfully in his shoulder.

"Nice dodge…but will it hold a second time? Third Gate…Gate of Life!" Komuro's skin turned red, and the blow from his second scythe seemed to move in slow motion for Naruto. In an instant, he felt his own chakra spike precipitously, and tore the kurigama from his arm, throwing off the other boy.

"You think a 'monster' like me will die that way?" Naruto's voice was full of animalistic hunger, eyes red and slitted, his whisker marks darkening. He had grown fangs, and claws extended from his fingertips, cutting into his right palm as he gripped his sword. "Don't make me laugh…" A perverse chuckle escaped his lips as he charged at Komuro, who managed to dodge the boy's swift swings and slashes.

"A jinchuuriki? Damn, I really am in trouble, aren't I? Time to leave I guess…" Naruto growled at the flippant response and chased after the boy, who was merely running away. The sound of chirping birds filtered into his consciousness, but it was mixed this time with a roaring flame accompanying the sound.

"Where do you think you're going? My medic went to all the trouble of healing me, and now you think you can just leave?" Sasuke charged at Komuro, his hands gripping a new attack from earlier; while it sparked similarly, a black flame was also centered on his palm, and trailed along the edges of the lightning.

Komuro did not respond, and instead drew smoke bombs from his pouch, throwing them across the field. A gust of wind from Naruto blew them away, revealing several clones in the midst. However, Sasuke noted the loss of red skin, and the boy beginning to pant. "Shit…guess I might really die here…" Naruto was already charging at the man, bloodred eyes focused on his prey.

"Naruto, stop! We need to capture him alive!" Naruto was not listening, already tearing through one of the clones, even as the group of them dispersed. Sakura captured two of them, and Sasuke grunted as he saw the remaining real one. Naruto grabbed the man from behind and began to twist his neck in a sickeningly fashion. His claws scraped along Komuro's face, leaving gouges in his skin. His left eye began to ooze as the jinchuuriki's claw pierced the eye socket.

"Sorry Naruto, but it's the only way to restrain you when you lose control… Balefire Fist!" Sasuke was in front of the two of them, and he aimed at the waist of both combatants, a non-deadly area. In an instant, there was a gaping wound exposed on the sides of Komuro and Naruto. Sasuke's fist extended threw the empty space where parts of their torso's had been, and the smell of burnt flesh filled the clearing. In an instant, the two fell to the ground, sudden shock and blood loss pitching them into unconsciousness. Sakura ran forward and began healing Naruto.

"I hate when we have to do that…" Sasuke nodded in agreement to the girl as she tended to their teammate. "It only happens when he releases the first part of the fox's power under duress…when he accesses it normally, that doesn't happen." Sasuke shrugged, sitting on the ground and holding his head in his hands. His arms and legs were shaking from the amount of power he had used in that combat.

"It couldn't be helped…that guy was strong. Unbelievably strong for someone our age. He's been trained for a while, that much is obvious." Sasuke felt his Sharingan leave him, though he noticed the sound of approaching footsteps from behind him. Kakashi appeared, looking equally haggard and worn, his headband raised and his hand clenching and unclenching painfully. 'He had to use the Chidori as well…or was it the lightning cutter? Either way, I'll have to ask him about that new creation I used out there later…' Kakashi looked over the group, noting their drawn faces, and the dire condition that Naruto was in.

"His demon powers got the better of him again huh? Guess that training with Jiraiya was not long enough to give much help…" Kakashi sat down, and began to administer his own field kit to Komuro. "Still, you managed to take this one alive at least, and he was one of the enemy combatants. I don't suppose any of the less-well trained warriors made it, did they?" Sasuke and Sakura shook their heads in denial.

"One managed to make it back to my reserve position, but I was a little overzealous in the use of the Sakura overdrive to protect myself. Even against your clones, the technique usually only destroys an arm…this guy, though he knew ninja techniques, did not have our chakra training at all…"Sakura wavered in her healing for a split second, tears falling from her eyes.

"It started in his arm, but the technique quickly spread and destroyed the whole man's body from the inside out…he looked like a popcorn kernel by the time it was done…" The girl shook herself and focused once more on her healing. Naruto blinked his eyes open, blue dimly lighting the area as he noticed Sakura healing his side. He felt his organs and tissue regrowing, and realized Sasuke must have taken him down this time.

"Sorry about that guys…he pushed me a bit too far, calling me monster…the bastard fox was not happy about that, and flooded my system and psyche a bit more powerfully than usual." Kakashi straightened from placing patches on Komuro. The boy would live, thankfully, as Sasuke's attack had missed vital organs and had mostly hit flesh and bone. The interesting thing to him was the cauterized nature of the wound. Chidori would not normally cauterize a wound, and the blow was too wide to have come from a katana.

"It's alright. Still, you need to get that under control Naruto. How can you be an effective weapon for the village if your emotions keep making you fly off the handle?" Naruto grimaced at Sasuke, shooting him a dirty look.

"You know that's bullshit Sasuke…ninja are people first, then weapons!" Sakura put her arms between the two, effectively separating them. The glares between them did not go unnoticed by Kakashi.

"You two can have this argument when I don't have to heal both of you and I don't have a prisoner to sedate." Mollified a bit, Sasuke and Naruto both settled back into an uncomfortable silence. Sakura looked over Naruto one last time, before turning to heal Sasuke and finally looking over Kakashi.

"Alpha to Snake, come in Snake." Silence crackled over the radio for a second, and Naruto felt his stomach drop appreciatively.

"Snake here." The team of genin breathed a sigh of relief. "Little busy at the moment Alpha. We ran into the Big Fiver, and have managed to escape for the moment." Kakashi's face tightened at that. "He seemed to know what we were after, and was moving towards the rendezvous point when we spotted him. We managed to delay him a bit, but Monkey and his team were badly hurt and injured. Sending them back on a speed route to the VET. Hopefully we can get some support for dealing with the Big Fiver and their ilk." Kakashi grimaced; why did missions for Team Seven always have to be interesting?

"Understood. Shift to secondary meeting location, and change mission parameters to a quick job. Alpha out." Kakashi watched as the kids resettled their masks. Sakura's had never moved from her face thankfully, but Sasuke and Naruto had both lost theirs at some point. 'Sasuke's has several cuts in it, so there was no doubt his was lost in a fight. Naruto's was covered in dirt and wood; probably got thrown through a tree.' Settling in around his team, Kakashi gave them all a stern look before lowering his own mask. "Report on what happened, Sakura first." The girl nodded, satisfied with her sedation and binding of Komuro.

"At the beginning of the battle, I followed the medic ninja basic strategy, which is to pull back from combat and ready an evac point. I also prepared several traps, and was getting ready to rejoin combat when I was closed on by an academy level rogue ninja. He was around twenty four in age, and used his larger size and speed to try and press me for a moment. I was able to quickly establish a hold on his arm, then used the Sakura Overdrive to pulverize his internal organs in an instant. After that, I came to the scene of the battle where I began tending to Sasuke." Kakashi cut her off with a hand motion, gesturing to Sasuke.

"I entered into combat with the ninja Komuro. He displayed high Chuunin abilities in combat and jutsu techniques, utilizing mainly wind blades and wind bullets to nullify most of my lightning or fire techniques. Furthermore, his Kurigama style and high stamina made it difficult to disengage throughout combat. I ended up sustaining several small injuries, due to my inability to dodge wind attacks at close range. Luckily, despite our disparity in skill level, I managed to hold him off, at a stall mate for a decent amount of time. Naruto thankfully appeared after a while, and helped me turn the tide of battle, forcing him to utilize something the Eight Inner Gates." Kakashi turned to Naruto for his explanation.

"At the start of the battle, I used the wind blade battalion technique to eliminate most of the weaker opponents. I utilized four scrolls of explosive tags to quickly overcome an earthen wall they had created." Kakashi stopped him for a moment with a hand sign.

"Four scrolls were a little excessive. Next time, less explosions, more planning." Naruto nodded through the reprimand, not deigning to fight it.

"After the enemy was reduced to one, I left to aid Sasuke in his fight, leaving Sakura to deal with an enemy that I determined was far under her skill level. Together, we pressed the opponent until he began to us the Eight gates. When he managed to cause my unconscious usage of the Fox's chakra, there was no outright fear in his attitude, merely acceptance that he could not fight against that. He showed knowledge of having fought such an opponent before, and quickly fled upon recognizing me as a threat. While I was under the influence of the fox, I gave chase and attempted to kill him despite requests to stop from my teammates. Sasuke utilized an attack he called Balefire Fist to deliver a shock to my system. I utilized the moment to subdue the foxes influence, and the ensuing shock and chakra depletion caused me to faint immediately." Kakashi nodded; this would explain the wounds that did not match up with what a Chidori should have caused.

"Alright, sounds like you three did well enough. Now, eat some soldier pills and get ready to move. We have a tightened schedule, and need to move quickly rather than quietly. Be ready to leave in fifteen minutes. Sakura, secure our prisoner for a sealing prison scroll. Naruto, once you are ready, help me with the scroll details." Sakura blinked up at him owlishly.

"We aren't going to interrogate him?" Kakashi chuckled lightly at the girl.

"While you and I could probably get some decent information out of him, why don't we leave that job to Anko. She's a professional at this part of the ninja world."

xXxXxXx

"You really are a professional at pissing me off, you know that brats!" A large man, in red armor, had his hand around Renna's throat, choking her out as her feet dangled off the floor. "They don't call me Han the Horrid for nothing, Renna dear, so be prepared for a night of pain." Tsuruko stood in the corner, her lifeless eyes taking in the scene.

"If you don't stop, you'll kill her rather quickly." The monotone response earned her a harsh glare from the towering man, standing such that his hat brushed the ceiling of the man sized cave. 'I really hate this guy…I can't wait till I can find a better gig somewhere else.'

"I'm sorry…Han…Kakashi Hatake was too strong…" Han grunted derisively at the girl, chucking her to the ground. She fell harshly and grasped at her throat; there were scalding marks around her neck from where his grip had been.

"You're just lucky that I got to vent some of my anger earlier today. I got confirmation that that group of idiots is heading for the Uzushiogakure Burial Ground. We're going to follow them, and use their arrival to finally break into that ancient vault." Han chuckled as he thought back on the earlier fight.

"As for the men we lost, we can train new ones once we leave the land of wheat." Han nodded in agreement to Tsuruko. She was always very calm around him, and he appreciated that in a subordinate. Not to mention, she was the only one he could not kill. "We could head for Wave…they have been quiet recently, and I even heard there's a local crime lord in the area. Perfect for a steady paycheck and a holiday vacation." Han nodded again, lowering his straw hat from his head. Sitting in the corner, he began to meticulously clean his armor.

"I'd like that idea. Now, Renna, make the dinner and Tsuruko, seal the cave entrance. I'd like to sleep and plan some things tonight." Han's base voice crept across the cave, his eyes glinting malevolently in the dark.

xXxXxXx

Fuu did not like the darkness at the edge of her vision. Her body was weakening, and she could feel the Hive growing restless. Kubo and Hiromu were busying themselves in her room; their movements, though quiet, seemed to echo in the tiny cave. 'At least they are going to be here with me when I go…never thought I'd get to meet some wonderful people right before the end…' Fuu began to close her eyes, trying to fight off the next coming round of sleep. Whenever she fell asleep these days she'd be out for a week at a time, and would barely struggle back to consciousness. Several times, she was sure, the two boys had thought she had passed on.

Explosions rang from outside the depressing room, and Fuu felt her body stiffen. "The village is under attack…" Her voice was hoarse, and ached from lack of use. Still, she struggled to bring herself to an upright position. "I have to go help…" In an instant, four arms were on her shoulders, helping her to sit up, and position her against the wall next to the bed.

"In your condition, you'll just get in the way. You need to stay here Fuu. We were charged with protecting you until you passed on, then sealing the seven tail in the sacred ankh afterwards." Kubo's hand was firm on her shoulder as he held her in place.

"We'll handle any attackers that come here, though if we are lucky, our hideout will keep us safe." Another explosion rocked the cave, and a chattering sound was heard from the entranceway. It sounded like the clicking of a scorpion across a tile floor.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I found the hideout rather easily. This is good, as I have people waiting on me, and I hate to make anyone wait." The voice was gruff, and harsh, echoing of the cave walls.

"I don't know who you are, but you picked the wrong team to mess with." Kubo was across the cave in an instant, his sword high and coming down on the enemy. Even as chakra gathered at the tip and prepare to rush towards the short squat individual, Kubo knew the attack would do little. The creature in front of him exuded a monstrous presence; what's more, he recognized the infamous butcher of his home village, Sasori of the Red Sand.

A flash of steel lit out, and Kubo found his attack negated and his stomach impaled by a long, iron tail. It ripped itself out and then stabbed through his skull, ending his life quickly. Sasori grinned to himself as he felt kunai racing towards him; might as well make the slaughter absolute. The kunai stopped in mid-air, reversing direction and speeding towards Hiromu. As they gouged into the young man, Sasori watched in pleasure as the boy's eyes flickered lifelessly, before fading out.

"Well, that went rather easily. Now, Fuu Heiki, you are to come with me immediately. We have no need for you to die before your scheduled extraction, so you will come quickly and quietly, if you please." Fuu felt the tears streaming from her eyes, but nodded dully. With the death of her comrades, she no longer knew what to live for; Jinchuuriki were weapons after all, and no one was left to care for a worn out tool.

xXxXxXx

Orochimaru chuckeld as his group broke through the weakened walls of Takigakure. 'Those idiots from Akatsuki even managed to heighten my explosive seasl; luck really does favor the prepared.' Wading into combat, Orochimaru smiled as his troops began to kill indiscriminately. Already, several large snake summons formed attacks against the village, and Orochimaru smiled as he saw human life and blood flow continuously from the besieged opponents. 'With what Kidomaru informed me of as well, there may even be a chance to meet up with Sasuke on this mision.' A nearby fireball landed precipitously close to Orochimaru. 'Though perhaps I should save such thoughts for after the battle.'

His hands flashing through seals at a rapid pace, Orochimaru called forth the great snake Manda. "Orochimaru, I see you have brought me a village to slaughter. You even invited some of my other clansmen before me...I am most pleased by your thoughtfulness. The snake clan shall dine tonight." The snake summoner laughed atop the head of the king of snakes.

"Yes we shall, Manda, yes we shall..." Orochimaru chuckled as two clones appeared beside him, each preparing a different technique. A moment later, the village was doused in great flames, the sight a masterpiece of carnage and death.

xXxXxXx

Alright, that's all for this week! I felt that the chapter needed to end, and wanted to get this much out to you before the holidays. Next one features the showdown between Han and Team Seven, as well as the development of some important plot points, and the fall of Takigakure. Things are finally starting to move! Haha! As always, I claim no rights to any of the above characters, and hope that you leave nice reviews as Christmas gifts! See you all after the holidays!


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